Here we feature recent stories covering the Asia Pacific region. Topics of focus include geography-specific perils such as potential water crises, and new approaches to managing life reinsurance arrangements.
The South Asia Risks Landscape: The first step for stakeholders looking to build resilience in their region is to gain a holistic sense of the risk environment, its complexities and the way in which global and local risks intersect with one another. Following this approach, The South Asia Risks Landscape white paper, developed by the World Economic Forum in partnership with Marsh & McLennan, incorporates data from the 2018 Global Risks Perception Survey and 2019 Executive Opinion Survey to offer a detailed overview of the risk environment in South Asia. Following this approach, The South Asia Risks Landscape white paper, developed by the World Economic Forum in partnership with Marsh & McLennan, incorporates data from the 2018 Global Risks Perception Survey and 2019 Executive Opinion Survey to offer a detailed overview of the risk environment in South Asia.
Asia Pacific 2019 – Guy Carpenter Asia Pacific Rate-On-Line (ROL) Index Rose: The Guy Carpenter Asia Pacific Rate-On-Line (ROL) Index rose in 2019; this was the first time in nearly a decade that the index did not decline. Price increases were not uniform across the region, but were targeted toward cedents or even specific layers that suffered losses. Consequently, following Typhoon Jebi, which occurred in September 2018, price increases were significant for Japanese typhoon buyers. Also, there were moderate increases for certain cedents in Australia, while prices remained broadly flat for other perils and geographies.
2019 Asia Pacific Catastrophe Reinsurance Report: Guy Carpenter has released its 2019 Asia Pacific Catastrophe Reinsurance Report. The report reviews property catastrophe cover trends; market conditions, including losses and pricing; and catastrophe events in each of the major Asia Pacific countries during 2019.
Environmental Risks Are the Leading Concerns for Doing Business Across East Asia and the Pacific: Results from the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Executive Opinion Survey indicate that environmental risks are the leading concerns for doing business across East Asia and the Pacific, with “natural catastrophes” ranking first and “extreme weather events” ranking fifth. The concerns about “natural catastrophes” were heavily driven by responses from Japan and New Zealand, where they ranked first, while in Indonesia and the Philippines they ranked third. The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia in September 2018, and the flash floods that hit Japan earlier that year, are just two cases of increasingly frequent natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific that stress the need for strengthening resilience against future catastrophes.
A Dynamic Approach to Managing Life Reinsurance Arrangements: The traditional life reinsurance model typically involves perpetual treaties linked to an underlying product. In order to create alignment between the contracting parties, the treaty would follow the underlying terms of the product. However, the treaty structure may concurrently include provisions that reduce alignment between the insurer and reinsurer, to the insurer’s detriment. This approach is often wrapped in the reinsurer’s “value proposition” – providing services to support the pricing, underwriting and claims management of the underlying product, according to Matthew Rose, BEc FIAA, Managing Director; Justin Ward, Senior Vice President; and Victor Hai, BEc FIAA, Senior Vice President; all of Guy Carpenter, Asia Pacific.
