SIRC 2026: Axa XL targets fine art, niche lines to drive Asian specialty growth
November 5 2026 by Joana Nguyen
Facing a crowded regional marine market, Axa XL is targeting fine art and specie alongside other niche lines as key growth engines in Asia, aiming to boost market penetration and capitalise on under-insured assets including in the high-net-worth segment, Todd Wilhelm, head of specialty for Asia, said.
“Marine is a cornerstone of our business, but that’s been around since the 14th century. Growth there is a bit more challenging, because not everyone does niche products, but everyone does marine. So growth-wise, it relies on those niche products,” Wilhelm said.
Axa XL’s specialty business spans marine, aerospace, crisis management, fine art and specie, as well as political risk and structured credit.
“We have a really good risk appetite for fine art and specie products. We’re trying to expand the take-up of that line across several territories as well as segments, and we have a very optimistic outlook on risk quality,” Wilhelm added.
“It’s about improving penetration and making buyers aware of what that coverage is. People may think their property insurance policy will cover their high-value assets, but it may not. There can be warranties associated with their coverage.
“Besides simply providing the coverage, we offer art expertise. If a painting does get damaged, we have experts to assist with restoration. That’s where we stand out. That separates us in the marketplace.”
Rising crime
Marine accounts for the largest portion of Axa XL’s specialty portfolio, followed by political risk and credit.
While the market, especially marine cargo, has become more competitive, with more MGAs and companies expanding, its risk landscape is changing, particularly in relation to GPUs and the electronics industry, according to Wilhelm.
“The fast development and investment in semiconductors, AI servers, crypto servers, and data centre-associated products have increased the theft exposure,” he said, adding that the value of each container carrying the equipment could be in the millions of dollars.
“There are some new players in the market, and the rates have gone down. I think it may show up in our balance sheets next year as the earned premium gets accounted. The losses won't go away.
Todd Wilhelm, Axa XL
“The criminal groups, rather than smash-and-grab, are being more strategic and smarter. They’re using technology to counterfeit seemingly authenticated bills of lading and it’s becoming more sophisticated.
“There are some new players in the market, and the rates have gone down. I think it may show up in our balance sheets next year as the earned premium gets accounted. The losses won’t go away.
“I hope that the market will reassert itself and be more disciplined. And we will price the risk appropriately for the exposure that we’re putting on our balance sheets.”
‘Learn from losses’
Asian data centres carry substantial accumulation risk driven by complex, interconnected dependencies across power networks, telecommunications, cloud infrastructure, and semiconductor supply chains.
The industry has been finding it challenging to model the risk due to a lack of structured data, according to Wilhelm.
“Collecting the data, getting the right and accurate data, and enough data to have that comprehensive modelling for those interconnected risks is a challenge for the industry,” he said.
Historically, in the property space, the industry has applied sub-limits to manage the interconnected exposure when it comes to public utilities outages, according to Wilhelm.
“The same thing may happen. A lot of these data centres are still under construction, so the industry will evolve eventually. We will learn from losses,” he said.
“In the insurance industry in general, our biggest learning tool is having losses and investigating those losses. It’s through experience.”
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