The Korean insurance market saw premium income fall by 0.3% in 2018, from KRW202.31trn in 2017 to KRW201.78trn last year. According to Korean Re: “The market continued to face some headwinds in 2018, as a slowdown in the domestic economy weighed on insurance market growth.” In its latest bulletin, Korean Re says that while the life insurance market remained in…
Canopius AG has entered into a strategic partnership with Korea’s Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (SFMI), in a move that furthers the Lloyd’s specialty insurer’s global ambitions. Under the terms of the transaction, SFMI will become a significant minority investor in Canopius. The deal, which is subject to necessary regulatory consents, is expected to close in the third quarter of…
The Philippines Government has announced its intention to join with Japan and five other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states in an insurance facility designed to strengthen resilience against climate and disaster risks. The announcement was made by finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who stated a commitment to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the establishment of…
Banking cooperative Swift, which runs the global network for interbank payments, has issued a new report on bank-focused cyberattacks, which shows that four out of five of all fraudulent transactions were issued to beneficiary accounts in southeast Asia. The report is part of Swift’s information-sharing initiative, which was established in the wake of the 2016 cyberattack on the central bank…
Multinationals face “unprecedented uncertainty” caused by growing political risk, Marsh warned on publishing its Political Risk Map 2019. Marsh added that trade disputes, protectionism and geopolitical tensions have created an “unstable” environment for multinational companies with direct foreign investment. The updated Political Risk Map uses data from Fitch Solutions to rate more than 200 countries’ political, economic and operational stability.…
North Korea has established a number of insurance and reinsurance companies in the past few years, according to the Korea Times, which experts in the publication describe as a “gradual yet firm move toward an open market economy”. The re/insurance companies recently appeared on Naenara, North Korea’s state-run web portal, promoting their services. The web portal revealed that Future Re…
The risk of a cyberattack is the biggest concern among business leaders in east Asia and the Pacific, according to the Regional Risks for Doing Business report from the World Economic Forum (WEF). The prominence of cyber risk reflects the rapid pace of digitalisation and the increasing sophistication of the region’s economies, according to the report. Southeast Asia also boasts…
The growth of the insurance industry in Korea is being driven down by a slowing economy and increasing market maturity, according to Korean Re in its Korean Insurance Market Outlook for 2019. The Korea Insurance Research Institute says that GDP growth is projected to slow to 2.7% in 2019 from 2.8% in 2018, putting pressure on insurance market growth. Premium…
AM Best has a stable outlook on Japan and South Korea’s non-life insurance sectors, despite the elevated risks of catastrophe losses and modest economic expansion in Japan, and operating and regulatory environments that remain challenging for insurance companies in South Korea. Best said private companies operating in Japan’s non-life insurance sector hold solid risk-adjusted capital positions and profitable underwriting results…
The preferential trade status granted to Myanmar by the European Union (EU) could be at risk pending an investigation into allegations of genocide. Such a move could be a serious setback for any Myanmar-based corporates exporting or importing goods to or from the EU. Myanmar is one of several countries that are included in the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA)…