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Willis Re is assembling a team and an operating model from scratch, unencumbered by the legacy systems and layered processes that weigh on established competitors, according to the man leading the charge in Asia.
“First and foremost, we want to build out an exceptional high-performance reinsurance brokerage in Asia that combines deep local market knowledge with the expertise, analytical capabilities and global reach of the wider Willis platform,” Richard Jones, Singapore CEO and Asia head of the reinsurance brokerage, said.
“Over the next few years, we want to secure a strong reputation for technical excellence, strategic insight and delivering meaningful value to clients.”
The new reinsurance broker, a joint venture between WTW and private equity firm Bain Capital, is gearing up to launch in Singapore as it awaits regulatory approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), including for Jones’ appointment, after announcing its Asia plans earlier this year.
“In the near term, and subject to MAS regulatory approval, our focus is on building the right team, strengthening relationships across the market and developing our position in specialty lines, where we see attractive opportunities to establish a differentiated proposition,” Jones added.
“We want to create a business in Asia that is responsive to local needs while remaining closely connected to Willis Re’s global strategy and the wider WTW Group.
“Willis Re is a brand that clients still remember. In that sense, it’s not a startup as in bringing a new brand to the market. But it does mean we can design our business around the clients and how they want to work.”
That freedom is the centerpiece of Willis Re’s Asian strategy.
“Having no legacy issues is important because we’re not encumbered by any pre-existing operating models. That’s a pretty unique position to be in. It means we can be quick to adapt great solutions and build around clients in a way that would be difficult to do in an existing business,” Jones added.
“However, our ambition extends beyond specialty business. We intend to participate across all lines of treaty reinsurance, progressively broadening our capabilities as the platform develops.
“Geographically, we want to build a business that aligns with the footprint of Willis’s insurance broking business across Asia, expanding into the markets where we can best support clients.
“We will look to hire individuals in Singapore that have local and regional expertise.”
Jones is betting that starting fresh will allow Willis Re to embrace technology more nimbly than rivals whose platforms have evolved over years.
“Many companies today are unfortunately operating from models that have been built over many years with lots of layers involved. Willis Re has this unique privilege to differentiate through technology and make sure the client experience is superior,” he said.
“Because Willis Re is being built from the ground up, we have the opportunity to design our operating model around how clients want to work today, rather than adapting legacy systems and structures.”
The new “tech stack” that Willis Re is building will connect pricing, actuarial analysis, cat modelling, claims, premium processing, capital modelling and data and analytics.
Jones said you have to ignore the market cycles in a way as a new entrant, but now is a favourable time.
“The carriers are in a strong place. We’ll continue to see flexibility in pricing and terms and conditions as we head into 1.1 2027, which is very positive from a buyer’s perspective,” he said.
“A confident market leads to opportunities because people want to do business, we want to do business, and so it’s a good place to be in.”
He said reinsurers are taking a strategic approach, seeking to be more relevant to clients and to offer more rather than less.
“We can match clients’ needs with reinsurers who offer the most relevant solutions, depending on what their strategy is. It’s a very positive place to be in the market,” Jones added.
“There’s a lot of hungry capital out there, which obviously we need to match to what cedents are looking for.
“Our focus is on being in what we are describing as ‘intense listening mode.”
For Jones, success in Asia comes down earning clients’ trust.
“Success for Willis Re is about delivering what our clients want, and by doing so being rewarded with their trust. That to me is everything,” he said.
“I think there’s always space for people who add value, and that is exactly what we want to do, to add value to our clients.”
Victor Kuk warns that capital keeps flowing into Asia’s reinsurance market, but exposure from urbanisation, AI and climate risk are outpacing premium growth.
Capital is flowing into Asia’s reinsurance market, but Peak Re CEO Victor Kuk warned that exposure is growing faster than premium as urbanisation, AI and climate risks intensify.
“We don’t see a slowdown in capital coming to the market as the returns have been good for a lot of our peers,” Kuk said. “But the challenge is that exposure is going faster than premium.”
In Asia, rapid economic development is creating more property, infrastructure and industrial exposure, but penetration has not grown at the same rate.
“You’ve got two streams of increasing exposures in Asia – urbanisation and the high-tech factories being built,” he said.
“China, India, emerging Southeast Asia have been growing quite steadily, but protection is still a bit lacking.”
The Philippines, he said, is probably the market where the gap has widened most because of urbanisation.
That has prompted a growing number of conversations between insurers, reinsurers and governments about public-private catastrophe programs, but Kuk warned that these initiatives take time to design, capitalise and operationalise.
“That’s why there are a number of discussions with governments as to how do we sort of work together through public-private programs, but they are quite slow to build up,” he said.
Beyond traditional catastrophe exposure, Kuk identified the rapid build-out of data centres, AI infrastructure and semiconductor facilities as one of the most consequential changes in the risk landscape.
“If you look at the risk exposures, especially from data centres, AI and semiconductors, it’s becoming more complex,” Kuk said. “They are all interconnected now.”
For reinsurers, the central question is aggregation.
“If you look at AI data centre, when a loss happens, how many treaties respond to the loss is something that we need to understand a lot better for us to underwrite,” he said. “Our concern for AI data centres is aggregations of exposures. Do we really have a good understanding of that?”
Kuk also highlighted “clash cover”, where a single event produces losses across more than one line of business or policy.
“Clash cover is the other one that we are paying more attention to trying to understand a bit more,” he said.
“I think when the wordings are not clear, sometimes they can end up in either property or maybe casualty liability. There could be hidden exposures within data centres.”
His advice to clients is to focus first on prevention.
“Only after understanding both the exposure and the mitigation measures can reinsurers develop appropriate program structures,” he added.
While many cedents reduced reinsurance purchases during the hard market to stay within budgets, with pricing now more favourable, Kuk expects buyers to return to the market.
“Now, clients are starting to look at buying more, because price is softening, to protect themselves, whether it’s aggregates or increased vertical limits,” he said.
He expects structural discussions to become more prominent after several renewal cycles in which they were relatively limited.
Cedents are beginning to ask about aggregate covers, changes to attachment points and sub-layers.
“If you look at the last three or four renewals, the discussions over the program structure have been quite limited,” Kuk said.
“Attachment points is one part that I think are starting to see cedents request a change, or buying some sub-main layer type programs, also something that is coming back to the market. It’s not coming back as significantly as before the hardening cycle. It’s more selective.”
Commission levels are also moving again.
“During the hard market, commissions fell,” but Kuk said recent quotations show clients asking for higher commissions as the market softens.
Reinsurers now have a better understanding of what cedents’ exposures are since the hard cycle, Kuk said.
“But the flip side is it’s an open market, depending on how hungry others are the market could change quickly,” Kuk said.
“Despite the softening, underwriters were still very cautious in terms of how capacity was deployed last year.”
There, Kuk, added, will be likely a lot of overplacement.
Peak Re plans to continue expanding in Asia while building its presence in the United States and Europe.
In the US, the company currently focuses on casualty and plans to expand into property and specialty through 2027, while in Asia, it is targeting incremental growth in larger markets including China, India, Japan and Australia, and remaining alert to softening prices.
“We are aware of the price softening and we need to make sure the adequacy is still in place for us to continue the engagement,” Kuk said.
“We are aware of the price softening and we need to make sure the adequacy is still in place for us to continue the engagement.” Victor Kuk, Peak Re
“Some of our growth will be coming from the new initiatives.”
Peak Re grew its GWP by 25% in 2025 and expects double-digit growth in 2026 and expect that to continue, although the growth rate will be adjusted based on the market conditions.
The company is also exploring MGA distribution.
“MGAs is one area we want to see how we can grow through, but we need to make sure we select the right distributors,” he said.
On retrocession, Peak Re is finalising its program and considering sidecars and catastrophe bonds, although neither is likely to be issued for the January 1 renewal.
“We do want to have a look how we use sidecar as a way for us to manage our retro programs,” Kuk said. “Cat bonds are also part of our retro strategy.”
It’s great to be back in the Lion City for the 22nd Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC), an event which has really grown in importance over the years and I can honestly say, of the reinsurance “grand slam” events, is the one I most enjoy attending.
There is a real buzz in the corridors and meeting rooms of the Sands Expo centre, and anyone that matters in the APAC reinsurance market is here and invariably ready to chat and catch-up, whether formally or informally. For a journalist, of course, such a concentration of movers and shakers really is manna from heaven!
The figures underline the importance and popularity of the event- one of the notable takeaways from last year’s SIRC was that at 3,800 registrations, the event is now larger in size than the industry’s grand dame, the Monte Carlo Rendez Vous de Septembre. That is seriously impressive, especially when one considers that Monte has had a half-century head start.
Turning to this year’s conference, I wonder what the mood music will be? At Monte there was a fair bit of chatter about how best to navigate the choppy waters of the current soft market, and in particular how to avoid the siren call of temptation to chase market share at all cost.
I’ve no doubt we will hear more of the same here in Singapore, especially as we’re even closer to 2027 and key seasonal renewals. With superabundant capacity in the market – Aon’s latest guestimate is that total reinsurer capital increased by US$15 billion over the first six months of 2026 to reach US$800 billion – backed up by a relatively benign catastrophe experience so far this year, don’t expect anything other than a continuation of this very soft market.
My guess is that, despite what they might be saying publicly, more than a few underwriters just won’t be able to resist the demands placed on them by brokers.
I guess the key question to be addressed at SIRC is whether such softening will mostly be witnessed in the form of further substantive rating discounts, or whether the discussions with cedents will mostly centre on taking the opportunity to renegotiate structures. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive!
No doubt the topic of AI will also feature prominently this week, and it’s certainly making the headlines at the moment, with Google’s share price dropping by a massive US$500 billion in the wake of its recent results. Apparently, investors were spooked by concerns around its adoption of AI for searches – and the impact that is having on advertising revenue.
For me, I’m particularly interested in what the APAC market has to say about its willingness or otherwise to cover AI-associated risks, a burning issue at the moment and one which could define the liability market for years to come. I suspect we shall hear quite a bit on this topic over the coming days.
Singapore wants the insurance industry to play a greater role in supporting the development of infrastructure across Asia, not just as underwriters of assets, but as providers of long-term patient capital, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
In a keynote address at the Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) on Monday, Hong Tat Chee, minister for national development and deputy MAS chairman, said that the insurance industry has a vital role to play in supporting Asia’s rapid economic transformation beyond underwriting.
“Across the region, significant investments are being made in energy infrastructure, cross-border power grids, subsea cables and data centres to support Asia’s growing energy and digital needs,” Chee said.
“Developing and sustaining these large, complex and capital-intensive projects provides insurers with opportunities to play a bigger role beyond underwriting losses.”
Chee noted that Asia faces significant financing challenges, with risks becoming “larger, more interconnected and more complex.”
At the same time, the region also faces significant exposure to natural disasters, with a high proportion of economic losses remaining uninsured.
Across Asean, more than US$200 billion of infrastructure investments are required annually, according to MAS, citing Asian Development Bank data.
“Investments in infrastructure can be a natural fit for these balance sheets,” Chee added.
“High-quality infrastructure assets can generate stable, long-term cash flows that align well with insurers’ long-dated liabilities, particularly those of life insurers. Insurers can participate both as asset owners and, through their asset management businesses, by originating, structuring and managing investments for other investors.
“Yet insurer allocations to infrastructure remain modest. Past studies have placed infrastructure allocations at only around 1-2% of insurers’ assets, although these have been growing.”
Given the current low take-up, even a modest increase in allocations to infrastructure would unlock significant capital for development, according to Chee.
Singapore wants to encourage the formation of an infrastructure financing ecosystem which allows insurance capital to be efficiently formed, deployed and recycled into infrastructure.
To support the ambitions, the MAS unveiled plans at SIRC for several new initiatives following its unveiling in October last year of differentiated capital treatment for qualifying infrastructure investments under Singapore’s risk-based capital 2 (RBC 2) framework, which came into force at the end of March.
The MAS is now proposing three new enhancements to RBC 2 for public consultation, including broadening the scope of infrastructure debt that can benefit from lower capital changes.
“Today, unrated qualifying infrastructure debt has a lower capital charge compared to an unrated corporate debt,” Chee said.
“We propose to apply the same treatment for rated qualifying infrastructure debt, subject to appropriate conditions, to make it more attractive for insurers to invest in such instruments.”
MAS will also recognise more risk mitigating features which will allow a reduction in capital charges for qualifying infrastructure debt, such as stable contractual or regulated revenues, strong counterparties and other safeguards that reduce exposure to market volatility.
Singapore is also proposing making the capital treatment for rated securitisations more risk sensitive, which would encourage insurers to invest in high quality, lower risk securitisations that suit their requirements and enable originators to recycle capital, according to Chee.
“Securitisation can help connect a broader range of assets with institutional capital and allow capital to be recycled into new investments,” Chee said. “Recognising that securitised assets have varying risk profiles, we propose to lower capital charges for securitised assets that are senior, liquid and which meet criteria for simplicity, transparency and standardisation.”
“This can reinforce Singapore’s broader infrastructure-financing ecosystem by connecting insurers with asset managers, banks, project sponsors, advisers and other sources of investment expertise.” Hong Tat Chee, Monetary Authority of Singapore.
To support the development of an infrastructure financing ecosystem, the MAS plans to set aside SG$30 million (US$23.5 million) under its Financial Sector Development Fund to support insurers in building infrastructure investment capabilities in Singapore, including setting up dedicated investment teams locally.
“This can reinforce Singapore’s broader infrastructure-financing ecosystem by connecting insurers with asset managers, banks, project sponsors, advisers and other sources of investment expertise,” Chee said.
“Taken together, these measures reflect MAS’ broader objective to make insurers stronger partners in Singapore’s growth-capital ecosystem. Not only protecting the infrastructure that supports Asia’s growth but helping to finance it.”
Japan is investing again, and the nature of that investment is creating new and interconnected risks that insurers and reinsurers must grapple with, according to Atsuhiro Dodo, head of Japan at Swiss Re.
Private non-residential investment in Japan has climbed to roughly 19% of GDP this year, reaching its highest level since 1991.
“What is notably different today is the composition and concentration of investment,” Dodo said.
Unlike previous cycles, today’s spending is concentrated on semiconductors, AI, data centres, advanced manufacturing and the power infrastructure supporting them.
“These investments tend to be more capital intensive, technologically complex and dependent on specialised infrastructure.
“For insurers, these developments create significant concentrations of value. More importantly these facilities are often interconnected and depend on shared infrastructure, including power, water, telecommunications, transport and supply-chains.
“This increases the potential for business interruption and correlated losses materially even when physical damage is limited.”
That interconnection is particularly acute given Japan’s earthquake exposure.
“A physical loss at one facility is only part of the potential impact,” Dodo added.
A major earthquake could interrupt critical utilities, affecting multiple facilities simultaneously and triggering business interruption and supply chain disruptions, meaning risk assessment needs to extend beyond the individual facility.
And while capacity is available, Dodo said, “it must be deployed with a clear understanding of these concentrations and interconnections, backed by high resolution exposure data, catastrophe modelling and risk engineering”.
“Pricing also needs to reflect the full risk rather than only the value of the physical assets,” he added.
Beyond the investment cycle, Dodo identified the continued digitalisation and introduction of AI as having created new cyber, operational and liability exposures as an emerging risk for Japan.
“As AI becomes more widely embedded in business operations, companies also need to consider potential liability exposures alongside cyber and operational risks.”
These developments are broadening the reinsurer’s role.
“Providing capacity remains important, but our role increasingly extends to helping clients better understand, anticipate and manage interconnected risks,” he said.
On changing exposures, Dodo warned of underinsurance if declared values are not regularly updated.
He pointed to construction costs rising around 6% annually last year, following substantial cumulative increases.
“Broadly speaking, we have observed insurers looking closely at how their programs respond to the risks they have today, including greater concentrations of value and non-peak perils,” Dodo added.
“This puts more emphasis on high-quality exposure data, clarity of coverage and structures that provide meaningful protection rather than simply maximising available capacity.”
“We should be cautious not to interpret a period with fewer peak events as a reduction in underlying risk.”
Atsuhiro Dodo, Swiss Re
Dodo cautioned against being taken in by the benign nat cat environment.
“We should be cautious not to interpret a period with fewer peak events as a reduction in underlying risk,” he said.
For insurers and reinsurers, “it still comes back to more granular data. We need reliable location-level exposure data, continually updated hazard models and a strong understanding of how land use, asset values and business interruption exposures are changing”, Dodo added.
And pricing, he said, “needs to be forward-looking. While recent loss experience is relevant, it cannot be the only guide”.
The country’s primary market “has continued to demonstrate relatively firm rating and underwriting discipline, even when other major global P&C insurance market have softened”.
“These developments are encouraging greater scrutiny of underwriting profitability and a stronger focus on risk-based pricing, reinforcing underwriting discipline across industry,” he added.
“I expect renewals to be highly portfolio specific. Loss experience, changes in insured values, the quality of exposure information and program structure will all play an important role in determining the outcomes.”
Abundant capacity, strong retained earnings by reinsurers, and benign insured natural catastrophe losses in 2026 will drive a shift beyond price to program optimisation at the coming 1.1 renewals in Asia Pacific, according to Gallagher Re’s regional chief.
Roshan Perera, managing director and head of APAC in Singapore, said that the reinsurer expects a continuation of the market softening and a relaxing of terms and conditions at the coming 1.1 renewals in the region.
“The region continues to benefit from strong reinsurance capacity,” Perera said. “Reinsurer balance sheets remain healthy, profitability has been attractive over recent years, and alternative capital continues to provide additional support.
“Capacity is generally available across most classes and territories. Regional insured losses in 2026 also remain below long-term averages, despite several notable events. This is creating a competitive environment and giving cedents greater flexibility in how they structure their programs.”
According to Perera, following the steep softening seen during recent renewals in the region, the conversation between cedents and reinsurers is now shifting from price to program optimisation.
“The focus is increasingly on achieving the right balance between cost and protection rather than simply seeking the lowest possible reinsurance spend.”
Roshan Perera, Gallagher Re
“While pricing remains important, many insurers are using the current environment to revisit attachment points, coverage structure, capital efficiency and earnings protection,” Perera said.
“The focus is increasingly on achieving the right balance between cost and protection rather than simply seeking the lowest possible reinsurance spend.”
While insured natural catastrophe losses have remained relatively benign in 2026, which has fuelled strong reinsurer earnings, the industry faces rising risk on several fronts, including climate volatility, with the arrival of El Nino in 2026 driving volatile weather patterns across the region, raising the risk of flooding, severe drought, and more frequent and powerful typhoons.
Recent catastrophes in APAC, such as the floods in Bangkok in September, the landslide in Nepal in August, and the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan have served as a reminder that APAC faces intense natural catastrophe risk, even if overall losses have remained below long-term averages, according to Gallagher Re.
“The current Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) estimate for the Thailand floods is approximately US$330 million, which is below the insured losses arising from the Southern Thailand floods in 2025,” Perrera said.
“Current insured loss estimates associated with the Nepal event are approximately US$200 million across Nepal and China, although the wider economic losses are expected to run into the billions of dollars. The largest insured natural catastrophe loss in the region this year has been the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan, currently estimated at approximately US$1.3 billion.”
The events may impact individual programs and portfolios, but will not fundamentally alter the supply demand balance in the reinsurance market.
“The market enters this renewal season with significant capital and generally healthy reinsurer balance sheets,” Perera said. “As a result, we do not expect these losses on their own to drive a broad market-wide hardening cycle.”
Alongside natural catastrophes, the industry faces complex challenges from new and emerging risks, such as the AI boom, cyber, and geopolitical tensions due to the conflict in the Middle East.
“Complexity is becoming a bigger challenge than capacity,” Perera added. “Insurers are looking for support around emerging risks, climate volatility, capital management, specialty growth opportunities and increasingly sophisticated portfolio management decisions together with greater importance to risk-based underwriting approach.
“Access to capital is important, but helping clients navigate a more complex risk environment is becoming an equally important source of value.”
In an increasingly complex risk landscape, cedents are using the savings from the market softening to obtain more favourable reinsurance coverage to support their business plans, safeguard their profitability and improve capital flexibility, according to Gallagher Re.
“A key objective is maintaining sustainable profitability,” Perera said. “Cedents are focused on protecting balance sheets and earnings while continuing to support growth ambitions.
“Across Asia, insurers continue to see opportunities in areas such as health, specialty lines, cyber, renewable energy, electric vehicles and other emerging risks. As these opportunities develop, clients increasingly want reinsurance structures that support strategic growth rather than simply transfer risk. Discussions around innovative parametric products are also happening.”
Scor CEO Thierry Léger effectively signalled the end for many human underwriting roles as he explained how AI will transform the market in an address at this year’s Singapore International Reinsurance Conference.
“I think AI is exciting … I never thought I would see something so transformative for our industry,” he said on Monday.
“We all know that are at very much at the beginning of this in our industry. It’s very clear that this is an opportunity for us. It’s an opportunity on the business side, but it’s also an opportunity to transform the way we do reinsurance, our business models.”
He added that we should clearly not put barriers in its development, but “we have to put in place clear guardrails to support the development of AI in our companies” as “we are very much entering – and have probably entered already – a world in which we have a hybrid workforce”.
Léger said he was “convinced” that we should handle AI agents in the same way that we handle a human employee.
“We have to find a way to register every agent that is doing work, and certainly at Scor we have no intention that any agent that is not properly registered is doing work for our company,” he added.
He said there will be a need for enabling oversight, adding that Scor has four levels of governance, with level three when AI is able to do all of the work of an underwriter, and can compose a quote to an underwriter.
Crucially, however, the human underwriter is making the ultimate call and sending the offer to the client.
Level four, he added, is AI making all the decisions itself and sending the offer to the client autonomously.
“In my view that’s a big step,” he said. “We want that step, from three to four, to be controlled. We are not trying to block anything, we just want to know which agent is actually allowed … to bind externally.
“Of course this will have a massive impact on our workforce. Everyone will have to embrace AI, and I think that’s exciting.
“For leaders, however, that’s going to be quite challenging.”
“It would in theory be possible to do [level four]. I’m pretty sure that at some point this will go all the way to level four: autonomous sending out of offers.” Thierry Léger, Scor
He suggested that the (re)insurance industry leadership really has no idea what the real differences will be in terms of managing humans and managing AI agents.
“We know that human beings have their strengths and weaknesses, but the agents we don’t know yet what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Léger said.
He alluded to the fact that, at present, AI can be considered less than 100% reliable, as given a dataset five times, the AI model would give five “slightly different answers”.
He also said that AI will not necessarily remember how it arrived at the answers, so that if the result is wrong, you cannot question it in the same manner that one could a human being.
As such, there is a need for clear protocol within the market to ensure that AI agents can log how they reached their decisions.
Léger told delegates that Scor uses AI a great deal at present, especially for contract management, and has also recently developed a pilot for augmented underwriting, which is able to ingest all the data, look at accumulations, and make some commercial decisions around pricing.
“It’s a very complete set of capabilities,” he added.
“It would in theory be possible to do [level four]. I’m pretty sure that at some point this will go all the way to level four: autonomous sending out of offers.
“But right now, we have stopped it at level three, and we want to learn from it and deploy it to many more lines of business.”
Jessica Schappell, Head of Asia Pacific Singapore, Beazley
Where do you see the strongest growth opportunities for Beazley across the APAC region over the next two to three years, and which markets or business lines are you prioritising?
Cyber continues to be an area where we see significant growth opportunities. As the risk grows in complexity and with AI introducing new challenges when it comes to speed and scale of cyber events, the need for businesses to build a resilient cyber strategy, with insurance as a key part, will only grow.
But it’s also important that businesses don’t view these risks in isolation. For instance, another growing risk area we see is the intersection of marine and cyber risks. Vessels are increasingly a target, A recent cyberattack on a commercial tanker brings home how maritime cyber threats are evolving. Rather than stealing data, attackers targeted the vessel’s operational technology, disrupting communications and critical onboard systems.
How is demand for cyber insurance evolving across Asia Pacific, particularly among mid-sized businesses?
Cyber risk is not static, it’s volatile and evolves with any given day, and demand for cyber insurance evolves alongside it.
However, while we have seen awareness around cyber risk and insurance improve substantially over the last decade, many organisations still underestimate both the likelihood and potential impact of a cyber incident.
Recent events, including the attacks on retail in Europe, really highlight the extent of damage and disruption to operations, customer communications, regulatory obligations and reputation.
And this is particularly true for mid-sized businesses. In the age of AI, there is no such thing as “too small to be a target”.
The market is undeniably softening across APAC, do you any signs of this changing going into 2027?
The APAC market is not moving in a single direction. While there are pockets of softening, particularly in areas such as property and political violence and terrorism where there is significant capacity available, there are also areas where rates remain stable and businesses are continuing to find growth opportunities.
Success in the current environment is not about being a commodity capacity provider. It’s about differentiation. As a specialist insurer, we focus on complex risk and work closely with clients and brokers to understand their exposures and develop solutions that reflect their specific needs and help build resilience.
From a pricing perspective, we continue to see additional capacity entering the market through MGAs and international markets such as London looking at Asia as a growth opportunity. We do not currently expect that trend to reverse in the early part of 2027, which means maintaining underwriting discipline will remain critically important across the market.
Where do you see the most significant gaps in insurance protection in APAC at present, and how is Beazley responding through product innovation?
One of the most significant protection gaps we see across APAC is underinsurance, particularly in cyber. Cyber risk is now the top concern for businesses globally, with 31% of global business leaders identifying cyber threats as a leading risk concern, yet many organisations continue to underestimate the potential financial and operational impact of an incident. While more organisations are purchasing cyber insurance than they were a few years ago, many may not be carrying limits that fully reflect their potential exposures.
AI is also adding nuance to cyber risks. Yes there are risks associated with AI-enabled cyber attacks, which we recently announced that we affirmatively cover, but businesses shouldn’t overlook the liabilities associated with their own use of AI – such as regulatory risk, or their agents ‘going rogue’, requiring them to voluntarily shutdown their systems. I think our market has a responsibility to provide clarity and certainty about what is covered as more and more clients implement AI – which is why we have announced endorsements addressing these risks.
Global insurance broker Lockton is preparing to enter Japan’s broking market through a partnership with domestic broker Kyoritsu Group, three industry sources told InsuranceAsia News.
The move would deepen an existing relationship between the two firms.
Kyoritsu Insurance Brokers, which is the in-house broking arm of Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group, is already Lockton’s partner in Japan under the Lockton Global Partnership, an international network of independent insurance and risk management brokers.
In an emailed response to InsuranceAsia News, Lockton confirmed the longstanding relationship, but declined comment on the reported market entry.
“Lockton and Kyoritsu Group have a longstanding relationship in Japan, and we continually explore opportunities to strengthen the support we provide to clients,” the broker said.
“We have no further details to share at this stage and will communicate any developments at the appropriate time.”
A formal entry would mark a significant step for Lockton in one of Asia’s largest insurance markets.
Lockton has an ambition to double the size of its Asia business by 2030, regional CEO Tony Hardy told InsuranceAsia News earlier this year.
Lockton has been building its Japan-related capability elsewhere in Asia.
In September, it appointed Kenichiro Miki as senior consultant for its Japan business in Singapore, joining from Price Forbes, where he led the wholesale broker’s Japan practice.
A softer market could make it easier for buyers to construct blended programs, using traditional insurance where it works well and parametric solutions where it does not, according to Ben Qin, head of Asia Pacific at Descartes Underwriting.
“The APAC reinsurance market is becoming cheaper and more plentiful, but buyers aren’t necessarily using that opportunity to reduce their own risk retention,” he said.
For the upcoming 1.1 renewal, the Paris-based parametric specialist MGA expects more reinsurance capacity to be available, with more reinsurers willing to write APAC risks and existing reinsurers potentially deploying more capital.
It also expects prices to fall by more than 10% in most cases, on a risk-adjusted basis.
“Once changes in the underlying risk are taken into account, including exposure growth, inflation, catastrophe modelling and loss experience, we expect pricing to fall by more than 10% in most cases,” Qin said.
“This should give cedents greater choice and negotiating leverage when structuring their programs.”
Qin said that Descartes expects retention for reinsurance programs to remain high, which could support “positive take-up of parametric products as a gap-filler for APAC reinsurance buyers”.
Even with plenty of traditional reinsurance capacity and lower rates, gaps in protection will remain, and parametric insurance can sit alongside traditional cover to address the gaps.
“We don’t expect the reinsurers to reduce retentions, or at least not at the cost economics enjoyed by cedents during the previous soft market cycle,” Qin added.
“This is consistent with global markets, and also in the Asia region, against the backdrop of retained losses from frequency events (e.g. several typhoons and floods in Japan, China, Philippines particularly this year to date alone, on top of the earthquake activities in Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar/Thailand and Philippines last couple of years).”
Demand for parametric insurance is also expanding well beyond traditional sectors such as energy, agriculture and retail, into areas including hospitality, infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics and microfinance.
“One key trend in the Southeast Asia region is cedents are also keen to offer parametric insurance in their local markets especially in the microinsurance/agriculture space. Additionally, public-private partnerships are expanding faster to adopt parametric covers across the region,” Qin added.
However, natural catastrophe-linked solutions remain at the heart of parametric insurance in APAC, particularly for typhoons, floods and earthquakes in markets such as Australia, China, Japan and the Philippines.
“In APAC, our focus remains on areas where traditional insurers and reinsurers have limited risk appetite, particularly in the nat cat space. As a company, Descartes is also continuing to evolve its product suite in the region, including power outages, aggregate flood reinsurance covers and data centre-related coverages,” according to Qin.
With products broadening and market conditions improving, Qin urged buyers to test what parametric capacity could add to their programs.
“We strongly encourage cedents in APAC to explore the feasibility of alternative products and sources of capacity, including parametric,” Qin said.
Evolving technology and data sources have helped overcome many of the earlier challenges associated with adopting parametric insurance, he noted.
Historically, one of the biggest challenges was having reliable, sufficiently granular and trusted data to define the trigger.
Technology has significantly improved the availability and quality of data, including through satellite imagery, remote sensing, weather stations, sensors and other data sources.
As a result, some of the concerns that may previously have deterred cedents from considering parametric, particularly around data quality, availability and reliability, are becoming less relevant.
“Rather than simply renewing an existing reinsurance program in the same form each year, cedents should consider whether alternative structures could improve their protection,” he said.
The Asia Pacific reinsurance market enters the upcoming renewal season competitive and flush with capacity, but Hannover Re is holding firm on underwriting discipline even as pricing pressure mounts on well-performing treaties, according to executive board member Sharon Ooi.
“In general, the market remains competitive with growing capacity. This continues to put pressure on pricing, particularly on well performing treaties,” Ooi said.
Yet demand for reliable protection remains robust across catastrophe-exposed territories.
“While competition is intensifying, demand for reliable reinsurance protection remains vital in all territories exposed to severe catastrophe events including Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan,” she added.
“Generally, we may see changes in program structures as clients seek to manage their exposures and earning volatility more effectively.
Sharon Ooi, Hannover Re
Clients are also rethinking how they structure their programs.
“Generally, we may see changes in program structures as clients seek to manage their exposures and earning volatility more effectively,” she noted, adding that “Overall, clients are relatively comfortable with retentions and terms and conditions.”
The risk landscape itself is shifting faster than in the past, driven by what Ooi described as “the external effects of geopolitics, climate change, social inflation and technological disruption”.
For reinsurers, she said, “We see both the threat and opportunity in equal measure. Our key focus remains the ability to assess and quantify the evolving risk landscape and provide consistent and sustainable capacity to our partners at risk adequate prices.”
On appetite for Asian risks, Ooi is clear that the region remains central to Hannover Re’s strategy.
“The Asia Pacific region remains a strategic focus for Hannover Re,” she added.
She acknowledged that softening in the primary market is “certainly a consideration particularly for proportional treaties where reinsurers are directly exposed to the performance of the underlying portfolio.
“However, this is not a new phenomenon and our approach has remained consistent. We are disciplined in our underwriting, with a clear focus on portfolio quality and sustainable returns.”
That discipline does not preclude flexibility.
“At the same time, we are committed to supporting our clients through early constructive engagement and tailored solutions as underlying risks and market conditions evolve,” she said.
“Our objective is to build long-term partnerships while ensuring that the business we write continues to meet our underwriting and profitability expectations.”
Ooi noted that Asia’s challenges are a mirror of global ones.
“I think the challenges in Asia mirror the challenges we see globally in terms of more supply compared to demand in some lines of businesses which can put price under further pressure,” she said.
“However, the risk landscape is also evolving faster and for reinsurers and insurers, it is imperative that we continue to play the important role of providing financial resilience to the region. Especially as underlying exposures become more complex.”
She cautioned against reading recent loss experience as a guide to future severity.
“Recent frequency catastrophe losses such as the Nepal flash floods or the earthquakes in Anak Krakatau in Indonesia and Kumamoto in Japan or the Bangkok floods do not necessarily reflect the expected severity of future events particularly given increasing asset concentrations and underlying growth of clients’ portfolios,” she said.
Reinsurance, she added, “is ultimately a long-term business that requires stable capital, a strong balance sheet coupled with the ability to turn technical expertise into solutions that support clients’ needs”.
Looking ahead, Ooi said Hannover Re’s priorities are “centred on strengthening client partnerships and continuing to deploy our broad capabilities across the region”.
“Our focus remains on underwriting discipline, portfolio quality and to deepen and broaden our relationships with clients by moving beyond traditional capacity and being a genuine risk transfer partner, helping them address their evolving protection needs,” she said.
The ambition, she concluded, “will always be to grow with our clients, strengthen financial resilience across the region and remain a long-term trusted partner throughout the market cycle.”
As nat cat, geopolitical tensions, and digital infrastructure risks increasingly intersect across APAC, Everest Re is prioritising disciplined growth and tailored risk solutions over chasing market volume, according to regional chief executive Kevin Bogardus.
“Across APAC, we’re operating in an increasingly complex, interconnected risk environment. Growing nat cat exposure, geopolitical uncertainty, and technological risks are creating new challenges for clients,” said
“Against this backdrop, demand is increasing for broad, creative and connected solutions. Clients need more than capacity; they need specialist partners that can connect expertise across products, regions and functions.”
Moreover, when capital continues to enter the market and competition increases across the region, short-term pressure could pull the market toward volume over underwriting discipline, Bogardus said.
“Everest remains focused on pricing climate-related perils with a forward-looking view of volatility, ensuring rates reflect long-term risk, not current capital availability,” he said.
“Our focus is on finding the right yes for clients while maintaining the pricing, terms and conditions needed for sustainable outcomes,” he added, noting that Everest’s “global expertise, local decision-making and financial strength” position the company to not only assist clients to navigate the risks but also structure solutions that reflect their specific needs and risk profiles.
Everest Re’s appetite for Asian risks continues to evolve across multiple lines, but remains selective and guided by underwriting discipline, rate adequacy and risk-adjusted returns, the CEO said.
“While competition is increasing in parts of the market, we remain focused on opportunities where pricing appropriately reflects the underlying risk and supports sustainable returns,” he added.
“We are not pursuing growth for growth’s sake; we are focused on disciplined growth in areas where Everest can add meaningful value.”
In addition to maintaining the business profitable through disciplined underwriting, in the next 12 months, the reinsurer will continue to invest in high-performing teams with the authority and judgement to engage early and act decisively on leading opportunities.
“Our office in Gift City, India, which we opened at the end of last year, is a great example of this, and we plan to build on that strategy,” Bogardus said.
As Everest marks 30 years in Singapore, the carrier remains focused on building for the future, he added.
“We are investing in talent, capabilities and market access today to help clients navigate the next 30 years of growth and risk evolution across APAC,” Bogardus added.
Moreover, Everest Re remains particularly focused on property, casualty, specialty and structured solutions, where the company has expertise and financial strength, as economies in APAC continue to mature, insurance penetration increases and clients face increasingly complex risk challenges.
“Navigating that complexity requires a forward-looking view of risk, disciplined underwriting and close collaboration across the value chain,” Bogardus said.
“Clients need more than a provider of capacity, they need a partner that understands their business, responds quickly and remains committed through changing markets.” Kevin Bogardus, Everest Re
“We bring together the right expertise to deepen our understanding of each client’s business, develop relevant solutions and identify where Everest is uniquely positioned to help.”
Berkley Re is strengthening its casualty offerings across Asia to tap into one of the global economy’s fastest-growing markets, APAC CEO Glen Riddell said.
“Asia’s GDP has been growing over the last 10-15 years, and so companies have got bigger assets to protect, which thus automatically increases the demand for the liability market,” he said.
The growth of casualty is primarily from general liability, especially around products liability, according to Riddell.
“As Asia has become the powerhouse of manufacturing globally, you see there’s a greater tendency of companies to buy product liability insurance for those products that they have manufactured and look to export, particularly to the US,” he said.
“One of the areas of expertise at Berkley Re Asia Pacific is in the casualty space, where we assist primary insurance companies to get into the liability market space, or, if they’re already into it, to enhance the offerings that they’ve got for their customers.”
Berkley Re Asia Pacific would help clients in terms of underwriting expertise, claims management expertise, and training, so that over time, casualty can become a mainstream product in their respective markets, Riddell added.
The reinsurance provider also leads casualty programs across the region.
“In Asia, property is definitely the lion’s share of the reinsurance market. Berkeley Re Asia Pacific, meanwhile, have a more balanced share between property and casualty, and we probably have a higher share of capacity for casualty than other reinsurers do, as that’s one of our areas of expertise,” he said.
The four key markets in Berkley Re Asia Pacific ’s casualty portfolio are Japan, South Korea, China, and India, where the business opened up a Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift City) operation in December last year, the CEO added.
“India is developing and starting to open up. Gift City has been a higher area of focus for the market overall as it starts to develop over time,” he said.
Riddell stressed the importance of navigating the evolving risk environment and maintaining long-term relationships with clients amid the current softening market cycle.
“At Berkeley Re Asia Pacific, we are not everything to all clients. We have a fairly small niche group of clients, and we believe in long-term relationships. And with a softening market, one of the things that can happen is that [the relationships] can change, and there can be uncertainty,” he added.
“And we’re living in a very uncertain world, with changes across the market cycle, nat cat losses and the investment market. Therefore, we see our long-term relationships as fundamentally important.” Glen Riddell, Berkley Re
Riddell also noted that while nat cat activity has been relatively quiet, the year is not over, with the hurricane season in Florida and the Caribbean ongoing.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, El Nino is bringing high uncertainty and volatility, as Australia and Indonesia are expected to experience a period of drought, while the monsoons in India could potentially be shorter.
“What does this mean for the likes of catastrophe reinsurance and crop reinsurance? We could be seeing crop reinsurance loss activity on the increase because it’s more susceptible to drought,” Riddell said.
Meanwhile, northern Asia, including Japan and South Korea could see more windstorms as a result of the El Nino, Riddell added.
Meanwhile, wearing the hat as the chair of the Singapore Reinsurers’ Association (SRA), Riddell expects this year’s Singapore Reinsurance International Conference to be “another very big event” with attendees from over 80 countries.
“The theme this year is capacity to capability, meaning that capacity is more than just capital, and it’s the technology and the underwriting expertise that the reinsurance market can provide to insurance companies,” he said.
Presentations will explore macroeconomic trends, geopolitics, and AI, alongside the launch of an AI handbook by the SRA.
Riddell also emphasised the enduring value of face-to-face interaction, with reinsurance continuing to be a people business.
“Although the reinsurance market is adapting to technology, some parts of it are still about old-fashioned relationships,” he noted, encouraging delegates to maximise meeting opportunities,” he said.
Growth in the regional reinsurance market is likely to stem not only from premium expansion but also from increased limit purchases and improvements in program design, according to Soon Keen Lee, APAC and MENA CEO at Canopius.
A softening market should give cedents more options, with benefits extending beyond headline pricing, Lee said.
“With capacity more readily available and competition increasing, cedents are in a stronger position to review program efficiency, purchase higher limits, lower attachment points where economically appropriate, reinstate previously reduced layers and secure broader or more tailored protection,” she said.
“We are also seeing greater interest in restructuring programs to address specific volatility, accumulation and earnings-protection needs through a combination of traditional excess-of-loss cover, aggregate solutions, structured arrangements, multi-year capacity and parametric products.”
This is particularly relevant in Asia, where economic growth, urbanisation, rising asset values and persistent protection gaps continue to increase the amount of risk requiring protection.
Governments are also increasingly exploring ways to transfer a greater share of natural catastrophe exposure from post-event public disaster relief to pre-arranged insurance and reinsurance solutions.
“This should create further demand for catastrophe capacity and encourage the development of public-private risk pools and other innovative structures,” Lee added.
“A recent example is Thailand’s natural-catastrophe pool purchased by the Thai government, which illustrates how sovereign and public-sector demand can complement traditional cedent purchasing.”
Canopius’ appetite for Asian risks remains positive and is evolving in a measured, portfolio-led way.
The company has clearly defined risk appetites by line of business and by market, and its priority is to build selectively within those parameters rather than pursue growth for its own sake.
It continues to favour well-managed risks with strong underwriting information, credible controls and terms that appropriately reflect the underlying exposure, while maintaining particular discipline in catastrophe-exposed, loss-affected or rapidly softening segments.
“Primary-market competition is increasing across parts of the region, with greater capacity and more ambitious growth targets putting pressure on rates, particularly for clean and well-performing accounts.”
Soon Keen Lee, Canopius
“Primary-market competition is increasing across parts of the region, with greater capacity and more ambitious growth targets putting pressure on rates, particularly for clean and well-performing accounts,” Lee said.
“However, the degree of softening is not uniform: pricing and terms continue to vary materially by country, class, peril, loss experience and the quality of the underlying portfolio.”
Overall rate adequacy remains healthy across most of Canopius’ target lines, in part because of corrective action taken over recent renewal cycles, but the margin for error is narrowing as reductions compound.
“That is why we look beyond headline rates and closely monitor portfolio-level rate adequacy, exposure movements, attachment points, deductibles, commissions and changes in coverage,” she said.
Where pricing no longer reflects the technical risk, or broader terms weaken the expected return, Canopius is prepared to reduce participation, adjust structures or step away.
“Our key concern is ensuring that risk quality, exposure growth and changing loss patterns remain properly reflected in program structures and technical pricing,” Lee said.
Cedents should use the current capacity environment strategically.
“The priority should not simply be to secure lower pricing, but to build resilient, sustainable programs that perform when they are needed most,” Lee added.
For Canopius, growth will come from two directions: building out its established franchises in Singapore and Australia, and expanding its product offering, particularly in specialty lines and complex, evolving exposures such as climate-related agricultural risks and cross-border political risk.
“In Australia, where we currently hold approximately 1% market share of the US$21.3 billion market for products we can write across the group, we see significant headroom to grow through a stronger middle-market proposition, deeper cover-holder relationships and a broader product range,” Lee noted.
Lloyd’s is focused on “faster service, lower costs, reduced reporting friction and more predictable, risk-based oversight” as it sharpens its competitive edge in Asia amid the current soft market, according to Nick Donovan, director of market development.
“We want to ensure that Lloyd’s remains an attractive platform for both existing and prospective participants as competition increases across the region, and as the underwriting cycle becomes more challenging,” he said.
“That means Lloyd’s needs to demonstrate an attractive proposition on the things participants care about: access to business, operating efficiency, speed and cost, all while retaining the oversight and underwriting discipline that underpin the strength of the Lloyd’s market.”
Singapore is central to that proposition, with Lloyd’s Asia the marketplace’ largest underwriting hub outside London, said Donovan, who is also chair of Lloyd’s Dubai platform.
“We also want to attract more local underwriting expertise, so that the marketplace increasingly combines the knowledge and relationships of the region with the wider capabilities of Lloyd’s,” he added.
“Ultimately, the test is whether businesses see attractive, sustainable opportunities to grow through Lloyd’s.
“As pricing comes under pressure in parts of the market, we will continue to support growth where the business is adequately priced and the underlying risk is well understood.”
For Asia, instead of focusing on specific size or growth targets, Lloyd’s is aiming to increase its relevance while maintaining underwriting discipline, according to Donovan.
“The opportunity is compelling. Asia is investing heavily in data centres, ports, rail and road infrastructure, while expanding trade corridors across markets including China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea,” he said.
“These developments are driving demand for marine, cargo and trade credit insurance, while digitalisation and the energy transition are creating further demand for specialist risk solutions.” Nick Donovan, Lloyd’s
Moreover, with Asia’s climate protection gap and digital vulnerabilities among the leading opportunities for the industry, Lloyd’s has expanded its capacity through dedicated property syndication consortia, while it recently joined the Global Asia Insurance Partnership to co-develop localised, data-driven solutions, Donovan said.
Target growth areas include parametric climate coverage, tech liability, and mid-market cyber scaling across Australia, Asean, and India, he added.
“We are already seeing new approaches emerge. In Japan, Munich Re Specialty launched a parametric earthquake product through the Lloyd’s Japan platform, while across APMEA we have onboarded several new service companies and coverholders since the beginning of 2026,” he said.
And, as part of the growth plan, Lloyd’s continues to support existing participants to grow, attract high-quality new entrants and develop distribution through brokers, MGAs and coverholders, according to Donovan.
The director in particular noted increased use of MGAs and coverholders for specialist distribution in Asia, while facilities and portfolio solutions are becoming a more important part of how business reaches the wider Lloyd’s market.
Alongside commercial growth, Lloyd’s is working to contribute to the development of the (re)insurance ecosystem itself, through investment in talent, innovation and stronger connections between local markets and the Lloyd’s marketplace, according to Donovan.
“The 2026 Lloyd’s Asia Broker Academy brought together 36 high-potential brokers from eight Asian markets in Singapore for specialist learning, mentoring and market engagement,” he said.
Donovan added that the wider Lloyd’s Academy educational programmes have reached more than 5,000 participants across APMEA, and it has also continued meet the market and educational activity in markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
“For me, the role of Lloyd’s as a convenor is an important part of our market development. Lloyd’s role in this region is about more than bringing additional capacity,” he added.
“It is also about supporting the talent, innovation, distribution and connections that help the wider insurance and reinsurance market respond to changing risk.”
Reinsurers in APAC face growing pressure to relax terms and conditions at the coming 1.1 renewals as the region’s reinsurance market continues to soften following another year of benign insured natural catastrophe losses, with growing concern about rate adequacy, according to Mapfre Re’s regional head.
Madrid-based Javier Sanchez Cea said that the Spanish reinsurer expects a “competitive and generally buyer friendly” market during 1.1 renewals due to an abundance of traditional reinsurance capacity and third-party capital.
“This will continue to put downward pressure on pricing, particularly on well-performing property catastrophe programs and higher layers,” he said. “However, Asia Pacific is not a homogeneous market. Conditions will vary significantly by country, peril, line of business and individual cedent performance.
“We expect price reductions to be more pronounced on well-structured and profitable programs, while loss-affected or poorly performing accounts will require a more differentiated approach.”
A major theme for the coming renewal discussions in APAC will be a change in emphasis away from simply price to structures and terms and conditions.
“We are seeing discussions around higher retentions, reduced proportional cessions, additional upper-layer protection and more flexible structures,” Sanchez Cea said. “While pricing is softening, we believe underwriting discipline and clarity of wordings should remain central.”
For reinsurers, securing profitable growth while maintaining underwriting discipline is now a key challenge in the current market, with rate adequacy becoming a “more important concern” as competition intensifies, according to Sanchez Cea.
“Following several years of improved pricing and profitability, there is room for reductions on some well-performing programs. However, reductions need to be assessed against the evolution of exposures, claims inflation, catastrophe experience and the underlying technical cost of capital. ” Javier Sánchez Cea, Mapfre Re.
“We expect some pressure on terms and conditions, including requests for broader event definitions, longer hours clauses, aggregate protection and additional limits. The market is already seeing marginal loosening in certain areas, although attachment points and retentions have generally remained relatively resilient.”
In APAC, Mapfre Re continues to prioritise its critical long term growth markets of China and India, where it recently opened a branch in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift City), and the development of its life and health and structured solutions businesses in the region, as well as selected opportunities in casualty and specialty.
The expansion in India, a “central pillar” of Mapfre Re’s strategy in the region, continues to progress, with Mapfre Re transferring renewal and new business to the Indian branch since April.
“Our ambition is to use Gift City as a platform for disciplined and sustainable growth,” Sanchez Cea said. “India complements our presence in China and strengthens the overall APAC network. The objective is not simply to write more premium, but to build a balanced portfolio and become an increasingly relevant long-term partner to Indian cedents.”
Since 2024, Mapfre Re has established itself as a sophisticated issuer of ILS, having sponsored three catastrophe bonds through its Irish special purpose vehicle Recoletas Re, including a US$200 million catastrophe bond in May providing it with protection against US named storms.
“We already view capital markets as a strategic and complementary source of capacity,” Sánchez Cea sais. “Our recent US$200 million catastrophe bond demonstrates how we can integrate capital markets capacity into our broader reinsurance and risk-management strategy.”
The reinsurer is closely watching the development of local ILS regimes in APAC with great interest, particularly following Singapore and Hong Kong’s recent moves to establish a regulatory framework for protected cell companies, which make ILS issuance simpler and cheaper for issuers.
Mapfre Re is actively studying issuing local cat bonds and sidecars to support the development of its APAC business.
“From an APAC perspective, we are very interested in the development of the regional ILS ecosystem,” Sánchez Cea added. “Hong Kong and Singapore have been taking important steps to create the appropriate infrastructure. We will continue monitoring these developments and would certainly evaluate opportunities where accessing third-party capital provides diversification, capital efficiency or value to our clients.”
Asia presents significant opportunities for marine (re)insurers as maritime assets, shipbuilding and high-tech manufacturing continue to grow across the region, according to Rama Chandran, managing director and head of marine at global specialist MGA Rokstone Underwriting.
However, volatility amid the current risk environment would require the market to remain disciplined, the Singapore-based marine veteran added.
“With Asia accounting for approximately 97% of global shipbuilding market share and an orderbook extending to 2030, the region is well positioned to play a leading role in the development of increasingly complex, decarbonised and efficient vessels,” he said.
High-tech manufacturing has also grown several-fold over the past 12 months, adding to the importance of understanding the changing nature and value of cargo, Chandran added.
The growth, though, brings challenges, with geopolitical volatility, supply-chain disruption, rising asset values and nat cat exposure requiring a deeper understanding of risk and effective mitigation measures, according to the underwriter.
“At the same time, marine rating adequacy remains under pressure, while inflation in equipment and services is likely to weigh on margins,” he added.
For decarbonisation, challenges remain around capital, the availability of alternative fuels, infrastructure development, battery limitations and regulation, he said.
“Shipping has always been an adaptive industry, and we believe it will continue to evolve, but insurers must understand the emerging exposures and ensure that pricing reflects the risks,” Chandran said.
Backed by a multi-year US$25 million Lloyd’s capacity from Tokio Marine Kiln, Rokstone’s Singapore operation was established in October 2025, covering all marine products, with a priority on complex risks.
“Our first year of operation in Singapore has been promising. With the support of our partners and clients, and an expanded team, we have met our targets for the first year. Jackie Lan joined us in April from QBE, further supporting the development of our regional proposition,” Chandran said.
“Looking ahead, we see opportunities arising from the growth of Asian shipbuilding and high-tech manufacturing, the transition towards decarbonisation, and the increasingly complex geopolitical and supply-chain environment.
“We also intend to continue investing in AI and data to improve risk understanding and support more dynamic underwriting.
“Our approach is to grow sustainably rather than pursue premium for its own sake. We are confident in our value proposition and service levels, and we remain on track to achieve our five-year revenue and profit targets.”
While the Asian marine market is experiencing continued pressure on rate adequacy over the past 24 months, Chandran noted “significant capacity withdrawn from parts of the market”, particularly for more complex risks.
Inflationary pressures on equipment and services are also adding to the challenge, and he expects margins to be significantly impacted.
“At the same time, geopolitical developments, decarbonisation, changing supply chains and rising asset values are creating an increasingly complex risk landscape.” Rama Chandran, Rokstone Underwriting.
Due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, Asia may also see potential knock-on effects on shipping routes and port congestion, according to Chandran.
“Although the immediate impact on global container trade may be manageable, prolonged disruption could create greater congestion and accumulation pressures at major Asian hubs,” he said.
“The duration and extent of the disruption will be critical in determining the ultimate impact.”
Looking towards the 1.1 renewals, the key question is whether pricing and underwriting terms will adequately reflect the risks being assumed, according to the underwriter.
“We do not expect much to change going into 1.1 renewals, but with an increasing challenge on profitability, we can expect some prudency on a case-by-case basis,” Chandran added.
“The significant war losses in 2026 are one cause, as well as inflation. Cedent retention management has been more pronounced from a facultative perspective in 2026.”
Reinsurers in Asia Pacific are facing a “tough” 1.1 renewal as abundant capacity and benign insured natural catastrophe losses in 2026 drive significant pressure on reinsurance rates and terms and conditions, according to MS Amlin’s APAC head.
William Ho said that the coming 1.1 renewals will see a continuation of the steep market softening over the past two years, with reinsurers facing difficult choices due to the erosion of margins towards or below technical adequacy.
“From a reinsurer perspective, it’s going to be a tough renewal as expectations will be there from cedants and brokers again to make further savings,” said Ho.
“With further pricing pressure, if it starts eroding the margins towards the technical adequacy level or potentially below that adequacy level, the difficult choice for reinsurers there is if they want to continue or not.”
After several years of extremely strong reinsurer earnings, APAC has a surplus of existing and new reinsurance capacity, creating intense competition and fuelling the soft market.
According to Ho, MS Amlin’s growth expectations for the coming renewal are relatively muted, with the carrier prioritising key client relationships, and scaling back its exposure to treaties which do not meet its expectations.
“The region does have a surplus of existing and new capacity,” Ho said. “Cedents will have to be careful on the security of the people they choose to deal with. We’ve been here before with cycle management. It is just a negotiation between the buyers and sellers to pick the right balance.
“I guess the message we would have for our cedents is that we will listen to every reasoning and request, but we are not here to say yes to every single one of those.” William Ho, MS Amlin
“If it is getting to a level where we don’t think we can meet our technical margins or medium-term requirements, we’re left in the difficult position of either having to reduce or come off, which is not something we want to do, but further pressure on renewal expectations may well lead to some of those difficult conversations.”
Reinsurers face growing pressure to relax terms and conditions, and maintaining underwriting discipline at the coming 1.1 renewals will be a major challenge for the industry, according to Ho.
“We think it will hold firm,” he added. “Structural changes and the terms and conditions tightening that happened over the last few years has taken a long time to get the coverage or structures to where they are.
“To go and relax them so soon after adjusting them, it will take a long time to get that back. So, I think also equal priority from a purchasing perspective may well be focused on the spend as opposed to the coverage. Hopefully, we will be pretty firm on it, and we will see these terms and conditions holding firm.”
This year insured natural catastrophe losses in APAC have remained benign, although the region has seen large losses recently such as the flooding in Bangkok in September, the landslide in Nepal in August, the violent earthquake which struck Kumamoto in Japan in July.
The events have served as “timely reminders” for the industry about the growing risk the region faces from climate change and the arrival of a super El Nino.
Thailand is a notable outlier in the region, with the country’s reinsurance market already digesting the impact of two major natural catastrophes in 2025 – the Bangkok earthquake and the Hat Yai floods.
The recent flooding in Bangkok was a sizable loss event for the industry, although nowhere near as bad as the disastrous 2011 floods, and it could have a noticeable influence on the trajectory of property catastrophe pricing in Thailand, according to Ho.
“If natural catastrophe insured losses remain benign, there will be pressure, but the frequency is certainly there, and we will be acknowledging that in our discussions and engagement,” said Ho.
Insurers must look beyond insuring more facilities and instead support the infrastructure needed to operate data centres reliably, with scale, density and criticality reshaping risk across Asia Pacific, Vicky Roberts-Mills, global head of energy transition and digital infrastructure at Axa XL, said.
“A single development can combine construction, renewable generation, grid connections, battery storage, cyber risk, cooling systems, and long-lead transformers and switchgear,” Roberts-Mills said.
“These dependencies can magnify losses, with a failure in one part can delay commissioning or disrupt the entire campus. Well-managed risk helps turn digital ambition into resilient, insurable and investable infrastructure.”
The insurer said its appetite for APAC data centre risks is strong but selective, as the region’s development pipeline and growing concentration of exposure put a premium on engineering quality, transparency and realistic recovery planning.
APAC’s data centre development pipeline reached 19.4 GW in 2025, according to Cushman & Wakefield, with Southeast Asia representing 31% of capacity under construction.
Grid reliability, permitting requirements and exposure to flood, windstorm, heat and water stress vary.
“Where grids are stressed, we emphasise redundancy, backup power and recovery planning,” Roberts-Mills said.
“We assess the systems that keep facilities operating, including power, cooling, telecommunications and shared infrastructure. Cyber or software failures affecting operational technology can be as disruptive as physical damage.”
She added that concentration risk “can amplify infrastructure and catastrophe exposure”, citing a 2025 MIDA report stating that Johor hosts 78.6% of Malaysia’s operational IT capacity.
“Transformers, switchgear and cooling equipment may depend on offshore manufacturing, specialist transport and scarce expertise,” Robert-Mills said.
“Extreme heat and flooding can disrupt cooling, utilities and access. Long lead times can prolong interruption, so engineering and scenario testing must assess realistic recovery from design through operation.”
Data centre losses do not always fit traditional physical-damage triggers or individual policy boundaries.
“Software failures, grid curtailment or disruption to shared infrastructure may interrupt operations without obvious property damage,” Robert-Mills said.
“The resulting downtime and contractual costs can exceed the physical loss, so clarity over triggers, exclusions and the interaction between covers is essential.
“If damage emerges during testing, questions can arise over when it occurred, which policy responds and how much delay is attributable to the insured event. A cyber incident affecting operational technology can also disrupt power or cooling without a conventional property-loss scenario.
“Clear handovers, realistic indemnity periods and scenario analysis supported by system logs, testing records and condition reports help define the exposure.
“The objective is to ensure material interruption scenarios are understood, allocated and, where appropriate, insured.”
Vicky Robert-Mills, Axa XL
“The objective is to ensure material interruption scenarios are understood, allocated and, where appropriate, insured.”
On digital sovereignty, Roberts-Mills said it does not necessarily translate into complete self-sufficiency.
“Data centres depend on global technology, capital and interconnected energy, cloud and telecommunications networks,” she said.
“The practical test is whether governments, investors and operators retain the capacity to act when dependencies come under pressure. For insurers, digital sovereignty concerns dependency, concentration and optionality.
“Mapping shared infrastructure and suppliers shows where diversification, redundancy or strategic spares are justified. The objective is not necessarily to eliminate interconnectedness, but to ensure that critical dependencies do not undermine operational resilience. Digital sovereignty is ultimately about preserving the capacity to act.”
Roberts-Mills said that capacity is available for well-engineered projects with transparent exposure data, resilient power and cooling, strong cyber controls and credible recovery plans.
“Appetite reflects probable maximum loss, shared dependencies and risk-management quality,” she said.
Hyperscale developments will often require layered placements, co-insurance and reinsurance.
“Underwriters need a consolidated view of data halls, power infrastructure, construction interfaces and critical suppliers,” Robert-Mills added.
“Accumulation across locations, manufacturers and technologies also shapes how much capacity can be deployed and on what basis.
“Pricing and wording scrutiny will increasingly reflect resilience, recovery options, physical-damage triggers, utility interruption and cyber-physical failures.”
“Strong risks should continue to attract dependable capacity and more effective program structures, while weaker or concentrated risks may face higher retentions, tighter sublimits or more restrictive terms.”