Mr Tan Suee Chieh, who recently marked his first year as CEO of NTUC Income has made sweeping changes to the 36-year old co-operative and the fun has only just begun, he says, as he shares with our Editor Wendy Koh his commitment to transforming the company while staying focused on being social in purpose and commercial in approach.
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In today’s increasingly soft market, insurers that compete aggressively for market share will raise alarm bells in rating agencies. Dr Roger Sellek, Managing Director, Global Financial Services, AM Best Europe Ltd, speaks with Asia Insurance Review about this and reveals the three most important components of an insurer from a rating agency’s perspective.
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The strength of Aon Re lies in its analytical team and its integrated approach to capital management for insurers and reinsurers which is the largest in the region, says Mr Malcolm Steingold, its Asia Pacific CEO, as he shares with our Editor Wendy Koh his plans to more than double the company’s regional revenue by 2012.
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In terms of business contribution for insurance, Asia contributes about half of the overall value generation for the ING Group. In an exclusive interview Mr Ewout Steenbergen, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer of ING Insurance & Investment Management Asia/Pacific shares with our Journalist, Shakun Ashoka Raj, the company’s success in developing a multi-distribution platform around the region, and how the company is leveraging market opportunities in Asia.
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Almost 18 months after the acquisition of AXA Re by Paris Re Holdings, Mr Hans-Peter Gerhardt, CEO of Paris Re, says the company continues to enhance its profile and to grow business. Here, he shares with Asia Insurance Review his plans for the company in the coming year.
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In this month's country profile on Australia, we look at the sweeping changes affecting the industry that has brought about testing times for companies. On the non-life front, insurers are grappling with water and weather woes as well as softening rates. We speak to companies as they hedge their bets on when the market will turn and what it will take to prompt a change. Life insurers, in contrast, are experiencing boom times although more can be done in terms of wealth protection and superannuation. Meanwhile, the myriad of changes on the health insurance front has brought about the much-needed boost to the sector. Read about all these changes and challenges that Australian insurers are tackling head on.
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Despite a change of Government, it has been business as usual for Australia’s insurance industry watchdog.
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The soft market and a lack of trained personnel are key challenges for Australia’s general insurance industry, say senior industry executives during a roundtable discussion on the prospects for the industry.
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The soft market continues in Australia and industry analysts are hedging their bets on when it may turn and what will prompt a change.
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Life office funds are increasing, but many breadwinners are still unprotected and more needs to be done to spread the message on the importance of life and wealth protection.
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Australia’s health insurance industry has seen myriad changes in a market of increasing purchases of cover.
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The Australian insurance industry agrees that taxes on insurance are too high. But the resolution is not as simple as it seems.
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The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC) offers optional terrorism reinsurance covering eligible losses due to a declared terrorism incident (DTI) in Australia. ARPC has built a loss estimation model to accurately estimate potential losses and is about to launch a new web portal called RISe. ARPC Client Service Manager Michael Pennell explains.
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Ms Joan Fitzpatrick, CEO – Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), discusses the issue of climate change and the dearth of talent that are currently influencing the Australian general insurance landscape, each integrally linked and reflective of the broader issues that are affecting the entire region, and how they are the focus of ANZIIF’s leadership moving forward.
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Straight-through processing for new life business is currently one of the most topical and exciting issues in the Australian life insurance market. Mr Shane Burdack, Chief Underwriter, and Mr Matthew Pilcher, Manager of Client Solutions, at Munich Re Australia, look at the drivers of this, which centre on the slow completion of new business that relies on cumbersome data collection and generally antiquated manual processes.
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Ms Lesley Traverso, Managing Director, DW Simpson Asia Pacific, presents an overview of the Australian insurance industry and how changes have impacted the role of actuaries in the market.
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Mr David Fried, Regional Head for Asia-Pacific, HSBC Insurance, looks at the burgeoning growth of life markets in the the region and how his company has rapidly expanded its regional footprint, leveraging on its strength in bancassurance to meet the needs of its customers.
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Mr David Hughes, Executive Director in the Ernst & Young Global Financial Services Practice based in Hong Kong, looks at how life insurers can capitalise on opportunities presented by maturing life policies, and in the process enhance shareholder value.
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With the growing popularity and staggering growth of investment-related products, regulators in the region have voiced concerns on the widening protection gap among consumers in Asia, which could have severe repercussions in the future. This month, we speak to two leading life insurers in the region on how they are striking the delicate balance between meeting the demands of policyholders who are driven by the lucrative returns, while at the same time maintaining the social responsibility of providing long-term protection products to individuals and families, which ultimately is what life insurance is all about.
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As Singapore’s Great Eastern Life Assurance celebrates its centennial this year, we trace the company’s successes from its growth as a humble life insurer of only 15 staff with assets of S$70,000, to the largest life insurance group and market leader in Singapore and Malaysia with over S$46 billion in assets and 3.3 million policyholders, made possible because of its strength in tied agency distribution and bancassurance.
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To tie in with our 2nd Life Insurance Summit in Hanoi this month, we turn the spotlight to Vietnam showing how the country’s accession to the WTO has paved the way for more opportunities in the insurance market, while luring foreign players and look at the challenges of the day for the country’s nascent insurance industry.
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Seoul’s national treasure, the Namdaemun Gate, was recently a victim of arson, and the episode left a nation in grief with many questioning whether more could have been done to salvage the historical landmark. In this inaugural quarterly column which presents a view from Korea, we look at how similar historical landmarks can be protected with adequate disaster prevention capabilities in place.
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The Geneva Association was founded with the objective to create a structure that would promote research in the sector of risk and insurance. With the creation of this association, its members expressed the desire not only to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of our societies, but also to stimulate the interest of scholars and other researchers in the study of the activity of insurance. This initiative allowed them to adapt their own management to the requirements of our time. This article from the Geneva Papers, looks at the importance of scientific research for the insurance sector and its role in the industry’s future development.
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With the effects of the subprime crisis continuing to unravel, we look at some of the issues which reinsurers may need to consider in relation to potential claims arising from subprime liabilities.
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With so much calamity happening in the world today, and the potential for weakening the links on already stretched supply chains, it is more important than ever to have a holistic business continuity plan in place to protect against the unexpected. FM Global outlines the key elements of a good plan and how companies can better identify their risk exposures.
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In a bid to stay competitive and keep up with changes in the global business environment, life insurers are forced to eye innovation as the means to differentiate themselves from the pack.
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We highlight the red flags that insurers can look out for to identify when money laundering is taking place as well as the Monetary Authority of Singapore rules requiring life insurers to report all transactions suspected of being connected with laundering or terrorist financing.
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Loss-making and underperforming books of business are often the main obstacles to growth for many insurers in the region. Now there is a straightforward, cost-effective and workable method of achieving finality for such business, as Whittington Asia, explains.
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With the IIS Annual Seminar coming up in July in Taipei, its President Patrick Kenny presents a sneak peek on what is new on the agenda for this year’s gathering while assuring faithful attendees of the regular staple of incisive dialogue and discussion of the major issues, obstacles and concerns presently facing the industry.
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Scottish Re Group Ltd’s Board of Directors has announced plans to alter the company’s strategic focus in a direct response to prevailing market conditions and other business challenges.
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JLT Lixin Insurance Brokers has further strengthened its presence in China through a new branch office in Beijing. It has also obtained a licence to operate an insurance broking firm in Vietnam.
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AXA has signed a five-year partnership with the Australian Olympic team. The agreement will span the next three Olympic Games which include the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and the 2012 Summer Games in London.
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Two of China’s biggest insurers are lobbying the authorities to allow industry players more flexibility in investing their funds. In particular, the country’s largest insurance company, China Life, wants access to the private equity market.
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Willis Group Holdings has won a two-year contract as the insurance consultant for the operational assets of the largest hydropower project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam Project. Located in Sandouping, a region in the Hubei province of China, the project will be fully operational by 2011.
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The Hong Kong Government has launched a healthcare reform consultation to seek public views on the future development of the city’s healthcare system and related financing arrangements.
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The General Insurance Council (GIC), which represents the collective interests of the non-life insurance companies in India, has made a recommendation to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for a standard definition of pre-existing diseases under health insurance policies.
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The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has emphasised its position on protecting medical insurance schemes for the country’s elderly population and has recommended an insurance pool to be set up so as to address “high risk cases”, particularly scrutinising health insurance renewal premium increases of more than 40%.
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Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company has crossed another major milestone this financial year and issued over 30 lakh individual policies year to date. It has issued over 60 lakh individual policies since inception in October 2001.
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India’s insurance industry now ranks among the top five recruiters nationwide, according to a consultancy firm ABC Consultants.
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PT Asuransi AIA Indonesia is mulling to co-operate with some banks to sell its bancassurance products, as bancassurance has contributed only 10% to the company’s premium income, making it the least profitable distribution channel compared with the revenue from agency and group insurance.
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The Japanese Government is debating how some of the country’s ¥150 trillion (US$1.45 trillion) in public pension funds may be more actively managed to try to improve returns.
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Prudential Financial Inc plans to step up acquisition of life insurance firms in Japan so as to strengthen the company’s sales of death security insurance products and enhance its Japanese market share through business integration with midsize and small local life insurers, said company officials.
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A Bill aimed at reinforcing regulations concerning door-to-door sales, credit, and Internet commerce may affect the operating performance and credit quality of Japan’s life insurance companies, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Particularly affected will be insurers which rely heavily on captive agents.
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Twenty-year-old Trust Group has launched its new brand, Trust International Insurance and Reinsurance, to capture the dynamism and energy of its youthful management team while retaining its history with its clients and the accumulated wisdom of the experiences of its board members, including Founder and Trust Group Chairman Ghazi Abu Nahl.
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3i Infotech Asia Pacific has announced yet another customer acquisition in Singapore for its flagship insurance solution, PREMIA™.
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HSBC Insurance has formed a joint venture with Hana Financial Group and the insurer has been renamed Hana HSBC Life Insurance.
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Private health insurance premiums are rising rapidly in South Korea, with the growing cost of cancer care partly to blame. Insurance prices are rising due to the country’s decision to recognise an international reclassification of some “borderline” tumours as malignant cancers.
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AIG Life has maintained the top position in bancassurance for four consecutive years in terms of first insurance premium payments, said a representative from the insurer’s bancassurance division during a press meeting in March to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the launch of bancassurance.
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Taiwan’s insurance watchdog has said that insurers may apply to have their overseas investments increased to 40%.
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Premiums for insurance products with terrorism coverage could decrease if more businesses in the four southernmost provinces, namely Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla, jointly buy the policies to protect their properties from damage caused by rebels.
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Vietnam has launched unit-linked products, allowing policyholders to make wider insurance decisions in tandem with rising incomes in the Southeast Asian country.
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