Full Capacity: Herding cats – taming the cyber chaos
September 27 2025 by Mithun Varkey
Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.
Nat cat brief. Super Typhoon Ragasa, the strongest windstorm of the year, slammed into Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau on Wednesday, but loss adjusters and brokers said that the damage in the region is expected to be significantly less than initially anticipated.
The storm unleashed hurricane-force winds across many parts of Hong Kong, leading to flooding in coastal and low-lying areas due to overtopping waves and storm surges.
In Taiwan, the outer bands of the storm brought heavy rain to Hualien County, resulting in a barrier lake in the mountains overflowing and unleashing a torrent of water onto the town of Guangfu, leaving 14 people dead and 33 missing.
Mega deal. In the largest overseas acquisition by a Korean non-life carrier, DB Insurance has acquired US specialty carrier Fortegra for US$1.65bn.
The deal will see the carrier acquire a 100% stake in the Tiptree subsidiary, backed by private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
This is the second large international deal by a Korean non-life insurer this year, after Samsung Fire & Marine increased its Canopius stake for US$850m to become the second largest shareholder.
India bound. Everest Re has opened a new office in India’s Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift City), joining the growing list of (re)insurers that have expanded in the nascent financial hub. The new operation is part of Everest Re’s Asia Pacific reinsurance business, which is led by Kevin Bogardus, head of reinsurance for APAC.
Everest Re is the fifth reinsurer to set up an office in Gift City after Singapore Re opened an office in June, joining Allianz Partners, Berkley Insurance Asia and Peak Re.
More than a fad. Underwriters are cautioning against the proliferation of auto buying and smart follow facilities disrupting the market.
In our story on the offshore energy market, sources told us that increasing use of such new facilities will erode the underwriting expertise in an inherently technical line like the offshore energy sector as brokers look to the facilities and technology behind them.
At a time when there remains pressure on premiums, the concern remains over risk selection and pricing with the new following market facilities, removing a degree of the underwriters’ ability to assess and fully price the risks they are being asked to assume.
It came as IUMI’s statistics showed that offshore energy premiums declined in 2024, to US$4.34 billion, representing a 7.9% fall compared with the previous year. Retentions and deductibles remained largely unchanged, which in itself creates potential vulnerabilities, IUMI warned.
Keeping up with cyber
This week, a report by the Financial Times delivered a stark reminder of the perils of ignoring cyber insurance.
The cyber-attack that forced Jaguar Land Rover to shutter its UK factories will punch a staggering GBP3.5bn (US$4.7bn) revenue hole, with no cyber protection to cover the losses.
The real kicker? The company had declined cyber-specific cover.
On hindsight, it does seem like a reckless gamble from such a visible global brand. But JLR isn’t an exception, Howden estimated that cyber attacks have inflicted an economic impact of around EUR300bn (US$350bn) across France, Germany, Italy and Spain over the past five years.
The irony, however, is that there has never been a better time to buy.
The cyber market is firmly a buyer’s paradise. Howden data showed that global rates are plummeting – down 22% from their peak.
Meanwhile, new capacity is flooding the market, leading to bigger line sizes and improved terms, including the removal of sub-limits for ransomware incidents. This should ideally kick-start growth.
However, despite these favourable conditions, growth in cyber premiums is stalling amidst declining rates and stagnant exposures, Howden claimed.
Meeting even conservative premium targets will require 15% growth annually over the coming years and Howden pointed to an urgent need for expansion, particularly among SMEs and in international markets, to meet future targets.
However, Howden’s European pessimism is a curious contrast to the chatter I hear on the ground in APAC.
Earlier this week, I attended a conference organised by the Hong Kong Confederation of Insurance Brokers on addressing protection gaps, which covered nat cats, political violence and cyber.
What stood out to me from the discussions around cyber was the need and potential for growth for the class of business in the region.
To the point, one of the speakers hinted that the industry’s capacity base is woefully inadequate to sustain cyber’s double digit growth.
Lockton’s regional head of specialties Jay Sharma drove the point home, observing that the plodding pace of traditional insurance is no match for cyber risk’s exponential explosion.
People moves
Swiss Re has appointed Pavel Huerta Uribe in Tokyo as head property underwriting globals for APAC, succeeding Andy Tran.
Lockton has snapped up Willis’ Terence Montgomery as Asia Pacific head of M&A for transaction liability.
Marsh Asia has tapped Mercer’s Dale Williams as corporate and commercial leader for Asia.
Allianz Trade has expanded into Vietnam with the appointment of Ly Dao.
Do check out our weekly people move round-up to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region.
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