Magazine

Read the latest edition of AIR and MEIR as an Interactive e-book

Mar 2015

Special Feature


AEC focus: Indonesia backs common time zone for ASEAN

Indonesia is the latest Southeast Asian nation to back Malaysia's proposal for all capital cities in the region to adopt a common time zone to ramp up integration, especially in doing business.

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AEC focus: ASEAN to declare single market by year's end

ASEAN will officially call itself a single market by year's end, but "big things" like seamless travel within the 10-nation bloc would only come in 2020, said Malaysia's Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed in an interview with AFP on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos recently.

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India focus: India's nuclear pool a done deal

India and the US have finally reached an understanding on the issues related to civil nuclear liability following President Obama's visit to the subcontinent in January. India will now be able to move towards commercial negotiations on the setting up of reactors with international collaboration in the country. To facilitate this, the India Nuclear Insurance Pool has been instituted to help negotiations between the operator and the supplier concerning a right of recourse by providing a source of funds through a market based mechanism to compensate third parties for nuclear damage. It would enable the suppliers to seek insurance to cover the risk of invocation of recourse against them. By Jimmy John

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Lloyd's in China: Beijing launch

Lloyd's is holding a Beijing office launch event this month. This is a culmination of a decades-long relationship between the world's specialist market and Asia's economic giant and is also a start to increased insurance ties for both. We take a look at Lloyd's history in China.

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Product bites

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Risk management news: Unique characteristics of "Charlie Hebdo" attacks

Anumber of unique characteristics of the 7 January terrorist attack against satirical French magazine "Charlie Hebdo" allowed terrorists to succeed despite counter-terrorism efforts of local authorities, according to the latest report by risk modelling firm RMS.

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Risk management news: New model for assessing political risk

Willis Group and Oxford Analytica, an international consulting firm, have launched a new political risk model called VAPOR (Value at Political Risk), which allows global companies to assess and compare the financial implications of exposure to a suite of political risks in individual countries, regionally or globally. For a start, VAPOR is to cover six different political risk perils, across 11 different industry types in 100 countries.

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NAT CAT focus: Natural disaster losses in Asia-Pacific in 2014

Ms Claire Kennedy of Impact Forecasting gives an overview of the 2014 natural disaster losses that hit Asia Pacific, which suffered the worst flood of the year and more than half the catastrophes recorded globally.


Healthcare focus: Sustainable solutions to older age care: How can the insurance industry play a role?

The world's population is ageing at a rapid rate yet insurance cover for care costs remains low. Ms Marianne Gilchrist of Swiss Re gives a brave take on the various steps needed to address this problem in Asia.

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Healthcare focus: How to incentivise healthy living

Ms Sek Yen Foo of Sun Life Financial Asia explains why insurers should opt for health rewards - as opposed to the traditional savings rewards model - in building incentives for their customer wellness programmes.

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Healthcare focus: Healthcare reform in Hong Kong presents opportunity for constructive change

Discussions about healthcare reform in Hong Kong have come a long way since the mid-1980s, with multiple rounds of consultancy studies and public consultations. Munich Re's Mr Andrew Wong and Dr Hak-Hong Soo examine the market situation and share their views on the proposed healthcare measures.

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Healthcare focus: Improving healthcare delivery in India

Health insurance in India has emerged as the major growth driver and as a most prominent segment in the insurance space today. Mr Vinay Verma of The Oriental Insurance Co Ltd presents a quick introduction of the sector and says the growth of health portfolio is significant.

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Life feature: Asia offers a bright future for adaptable insurers

Mr Benoit Claveranne of AXA Asia says the litmus test for survival in Asia's maturing insurance market will be embodying a genuine client-centric approach, appreciating their needs and experience, and increasing the pace of digital integration to offer digital-savvy individuals greater access.

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Life feature: Maintaining life insurer's relevance

Like all other businesses, being adaptable and relevant is key for life insurers. Read on for tips on approaches to take and pitfalls to avoid.


Life feature: Five life insurance game-changers and cautions

Mr Brian Greenberg of True Blue Life Insurance discusses key life insurance industry's innovations, trends and pitfalls that advisers should heed in 2015.

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IRFRC: Multi-population mortality risk in Asia-Pacific: Outputs

Dr Andreas Milidonis from the Insurance Risk and Finance Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University discusses longevity risk predictability in Asia Pacific and the implications of longevity risk sharing.


Asset management: The impact of interest rates and other parameters on insurers' profitability

Mr Patrice Conxicoeur of HSBC Global Asset Management shares the results of an experiment they conducted to illustrate the impact of financial and business scenarios on the profitability of insurers.


Women in insurance: May the best (wo)man win

There are equal opportunities for men and women to develop their careers in the insurance industry, but sometimes women still face some inherent societal challenges. Six female leaders speak about their experiences and offer advice to those who are new to the industry.