Singapore is now a reinsurance hub, says Kiln

Singapore’s growth as a speciality lines reinsurance hub over the last five years means it could soon be comparable with other reinsurance hubs such as London, Bermuda and Zurich.

While still smaller in terms of premium volume, Singapore is seeing the amount of premium flowing through it rising.

“If you consider where insurers, reinsurers and brokers have tended to establish a regional presence, Singapore tends to be the Asia Pacific centre,” said Neil Wray, regional managing director at Kiln Asia, which has recently expanded its presence in the region.

“It is interesting that there has been the creation of a regional wholesale special lines reinsurance hub, which has particularly taken off in the last five to six years. I certainly would mention Singapore in the breath as London, Bermuda and Zurich. It is now one of the global wholesale specialty hubs,” he added.

Kiln recently increased the size of its underwriting team in Asia with the appointments of Joyce Fung as a marine liability underwriter in Hong Kong and Graham Oddie as an aviation underwriter in Singapore.

This move is part of a continuing expansion process for Kiln, which has three offices in the Asia Pacific region: Hong Kong, Singapore and in Lloyd’s China. The region has experienced a substantial level of growth throughout the financial crisis. This presents an opportunity to reinsurers, such as Kiln.

“The region has continued to have economic growth and insurance purchasing,” said Wray, who added that there were different levels of maturity of markets, depending on where in Asia Pacific, was being considered.

However, Wray said that there were several countries that presented exciting opportunities and that marine and aviation business were both likely to see growth.