Please find below an announcement from the ASEAN Insurance Council (AIC) of the Malaysian Insurance Institute's (MII) virtual classes with the following details: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | 22 & 23 Apr 2024 (Module 1) Registration Deadline: 17 Apr 2024 Webinar via Zoom Module 1 : ASEAN Insurance Market Practices (Underwriting & Claims) Overview This intermediate-level training programme provides a detailed examination of the underwriting and claims processes in the Malaysian insurance market. Participants will delve into the regulatory landscape, market practices, product development, and key underwriting and claims practices specific to Malaysia. The programme also covers reinsurance practices, the impact of technology on underwriting and claims, and market practices for handling complaints and fraudulent claims. WHO SHOULD JOIN? - Insurance underwriters - Claims handlers - Insurance managers from non insurance company - Risk managers - General insurance agents with more than 2 years field experience - Compliance officers - Insurance product developers - Insurance sales and marketing professionals - Anyone seeking to enhance their knowledge of the Malaysian general insurance market and regulatory environment

Our PIRA representative attended today, April 5, 2024, at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Atty. Theodore Joseph Campanano; Atty. Ma. Patricia Foria; Atty. Jan Lawrence Gatchalian; Insurance Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado; Atty. Renato De Jesus

The number of Filipinos traveling to Japan is increasing. With that in mind, the GIAJ is focusing on “Initiatives to ensure the safety and security of overseas visitors in Japan” as one of their priority activities this year. For more information, kindly visit the https://living-and-ins.jp/en/

Reinsurance market conditions since the 1 January renewals have continued to favour reinsurance buyers, with a 'dramatic shift' towards 'ample' property catastrophe reinsurance capacity, driven by attractive levels of risk-adjusted returns, having been experienced over the past 12 months, says Aon, a leading global professional services firm. Aon will provide a comprehensive analysis of the reinsurance marketplace and renewal trends in a report, Reinsurance Market Dynamics April 2024, which will be launched on 2 April. While around 60% of Asia treaty business renews at 1 April, the period also has global significance, with some of the world’s largest catastrophe programmes renewing in Japan, as well as large portfolios of business renewing in other regions – including South Korea, China and India. Property catastrophe renewals in Japan reinforced the positive trends seen in the US at the 1 January reinsurance renewals, with pricing flat to slightly reduced, while South Korea, China and India also saw increased competition for catastrophe business, to varying degrees. While pricing was broadly flat for property catastrophe reinsurance, certain Asia Pacific markets and product lines remained challenged and subject to a tightening in terms and conditions – including property per-risk reinsurance; industrial fire accounts; certain natural catastrophe loss-affected regions; and US exposed casualty treaties. In terms of growth opportunities, 1 April represents a major renewal date for facultative reinsurance – a risk transfer solution that is not utilised broadly across the Asia Pacific. Reinsurers displayed an increased appetite for facultative business at the April 1st renewal, while new players continue to enter the market such as managing general agents. 1 April is also a key renewal period for the Indian market, with new opportunities for reinsurers given India’s forecast position as the fastest-growing insurance sector of all G20 countries over the next five years. Reinsurance capital The report reveals that, at $670bn, total global reinsurance capital is now close to the peak levels recorded in 2021, resulting from strong reinsurer results and a recovery in asset values in 2023, as well as a historic period for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. Aon Securities estimates that overall ILS capital increased to $108bn at year-end 2023, which marks a 7% increase on the prior year, and an all-time high. Despite global natural catastrophe insured losses totalling $118bn in 2023, many reinsurers performed strongly, due to elevated reinsurance pricing and higher cedent retentions. Early analysis suggests that global reinsurers posted an average combined ratio of around 90% and an average return on equity of around 18%, representing one of the sector’s best-ever results. Mr George Attard, CEO of Asia Pacific for Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions, said, “The 1 April reinsurance renewals were more predictable and generally favourable to reinsurance buyers. As mid-year renewals get underway for the catastrophe-exposed markets of Florida, Australia and New Zealand, reinsurers are indicating a strong appetite for catastrophe risk. “We would expect the positive trend of the January and April renewals to continue at mid-year renewals, with adequate capacity for property catastrophe risks and enhanced pricing competition. Insurers looking to purchase additional limit will also find adequate capacity to meet their needs.” Looking ahead Aon’s analysis shows that earlier renewal discussions are happening on a significant number of US mid-year renewals, with reinsurers ready to provide indications and secure capacity. Aon forecasts as much as $7bn of additional demand from US insurers for property catastrophe limit at the mid-year renewals, as programmes keep pace with inflation and evolving views of risk, and from a resurgent Florida market. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

The ASEAN insurance regulators meeting held in Ha Long, Vietnam, on December 5, 2023. The session discusses the regulatory initiatives to reduce the protection gap, foster innovation, and their pivot to the future. What are the key considerations in nurturing innovation and managing the impact of climate risk, innovations in technology, and other disruptive forces. Among the attendees were PIRA Executive Director Michael Rellosa as Moderator, IC Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado, PIRA Chairperson Eden Tesoro, Deputy Chairman Arturo Reyes, Mr. Francis Papa, and Mr. Rico Bautista.

Due to increasingly unpredictable weather phenomena in Australia, parametric insurance is emerging as a "viable option for the nation's farmers", according to Descartes Underwriting. Descartes said that La Niña brought higher-than-normal rainfall for three years, before Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology declared that El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole events would combine “to bring drier conditions” last year. Despite the forecast, many areas across eastern Australia continued to experience heavy rainfall. According to Descartes head of North Asia and Australia Ben Qin, this is because phenomenon is uncertain and non-linear, causing a swing between El Niño, neutral and La Niña events. “There is a high probability the Pacific Ocean will return to La Niña this spring and, if that happens, it will increase the chances of a wet spring and summer in eastern Australia,” he said. Parametric insurance, used alongside crop planning and budgeting, may give farmers another “financial tool to optimise returns and minimise the chance of ruin”, Descartes said. According to Mr Qin, this is important for both finances and “peace of mind and mental health”. Moreover, volatile weather patterns created fear among traditional insurers. “The increased volatility means models based on historical data are no longer reliable. That makes some (re)insurers nervous,” Descartes Underwriting head of business development, Australia and New Zealand Lynn Roehrig said. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday after it was struck by a container ship could trigger a wide swath of insurance and reinsurance policies, and the loss is likely to run into billions of dollars, sources say. Beyond marine hull, cargo and liability policies, the incident could trigger various coverages including auto, contingent business interruption, inland marine, property, trade credit and workers compensation. The Singapore-flagged Dali container ship, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd., collided with one of the pillars of the bridge, at around 1:30 a.m. ET Tuesday while being piloted. At least two people were rescued, and six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time of the collapse are missing and presumed dead, according to news reports. The bridge, which provided access to the Port of Baltimore, opened in 1977. The port is the largest for shipments of cars and light trucks in the U.S. London-based marine mutual insurer The Britannia P&I Club confirmed that the Dali is insured by the club for protection and indemnity liabilities. The vessel will also have hull and cargo coverage in place, sources said. All 21 crew members on board, and two pilots, have been accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries among them, the owners and managers of the ship said. In a statement, Synergy Marine Group, the vessel’s manager, said the owners and managers are fully cooperating with federal and state agencies. The exact cause of the incident has yet to be determined, they said, adding that there had been no pollution. News reports said the ship may have lost steering after losing power before hitting the bridge. The bridge is valued upwards of $1.2 billion, though it is not known whether the insured limit on the property placement is that high, the Insurance Information Institute said. It is understood that Aon PLC handles the bridges and tunnels property placement for the state of Maryland. Britannia Club is a member of the International Group of P&I clubs, an association of 12 P&I clubs that provides marine liability cover for 90% of the world’s ocean-going tonnage. Individual clubs retain $10 million on any claim, and claims in excess of $10 million are shared between the group clubs. The group also buys group excess of loss reinsurance cover up to $3.1 billion in the open market. Axa XL leads the group excess of loss cover, according to information posted on the International Group’s site. Excess of $30 million, the International Group pool is also reinsured by Bermuda-domiciled group captive Hydra Insurance Co. Ltd., an incorporated cell company. Each of the 12 Group clubs has its own segregated account or cell ringfencing its assets and liability from the other club cells. The total cost of the bridge collapse and associated claims will not be clear for some time but is likely to run into billions of dollars and “well above the $100 million attachment point for the GXL contract,” rating agency A.M. Best Co. said Tuesday. “The insurance issues due to the collapse of the bridge will take a long time to unravel and may involve several lines, such as property, cargo, liability, trade credit and contingent business interruption,” Best said. “I would expect this event to exhaust limits, excess layers and reinsurance for most types of coverage carried by the ship’s operator,” Robert Hartwig, clinical associate professor and director, Risk and Uncertainty Management Center, at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, said in an email. The disruption to vehicle and marine traffic could lead to contingent business interruption claims in the U.S. and abroad, Mr. Hartwig said. Litigation against the entity responsible for the operation and maintenance of the bridge is also possible, he said. “The claim will likely involve several insurers, reinsurers, subrogation and legal issues, and will serve to add to the increasing challenges in reinsurance availability,” Best said. Depending on the duration of shipping interruption, this will likely push replacement costs up for new autos — at least in the short run, the I.I.I. said. The Dali, en route from the port of Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, was chartered by Denmark-based A.P. Moeller Maersk and carrying Maersk customers’ cargo. None of its personnel were onboard, Maersk said. “Please note that for cargo set to discharge in Baltimore, delays may occur, as they will need to discharge in other ports,” Maersk said in an advisory to customers. Maersk has a Denmark-domiciled captive insurer, Maersk Insurance A/S, that is licensed to write direct and reinsurance business for various insurance lines including marine, property and liability. The 984-foot cargo ship had a capacity of 10,000 TEU – twenty-foot equivalent unit, a measure of a ship’s cargo capacity – and 4,679 boxes onboard. A 10,000 to 20,000 TEU is considered to be a very large container ship. In recent years, concerns have been raised over the growing capacity of container vessels and the increasing cargo accumulations and exposures for insurers. Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE, a unit of Allianz SE, warned in a report last year that some insurers may scale back their exposure to larger container vessels if the associated risks are not properly managed. Source: businessinsurance.com

Generative AI, as a technology, caught many people off-guard with its power and flexibility. With the entire world scrambling to take full advantage of what generative AI can do, insurers must make surenot to lag behind in adoption and integration once again. These were the sentiments of the panel at an event put together by the Singapore College of Insurance (SCI) and the Digital Insurer (TDI). “For insurers, in particular, those who adopted new technologies and scaled up financially outperformed the laggards by six times,” said SCI CEO Shalini Pavithran. “There are definitely going to be changes and that is why we have to get ahead of it. How do we learn? How do we upskill ourselves? New roles are being introduced, such as prompt engineer, and we need to look into the practices of how we hire, how we measure these new skills. I think the way in which our business operates will change, and that will require change from the leadership and individuals,” she said. Microsoft head of business development Zia Zaman also pointed out how no one really expected the scope of change that generative AI would bring to the world. “We have not had a major technology shift like this in quite some time, but it is seminal in terms of the way in which it might change the way we do tech, the way we work,” he said. “We got a preview of ChatGPT four months before it launched and we were blown away, and even then, we underestimated the degree to which it would light a fire in the industry.” Currently, generative AI is estimated to be worth $4.4tn in terms of opportunity, and it can generate an incremental economic impact of about $6.6 to $8.8tn, according to figures from McKinsey. “Right now, 18% of enterprises have already implemented AI solutions in some form of the other, with another 25% looking at implementing within the next six months,” said Prudential Financial business and digital transformation leader Abhishek Rathi. “And this is about a technology which is just 17 months old. This has never been the case where our technology has caught the fancy of enterprises like no other.” However, the world at large is still just scratching the surface of this technology, and to implement it in an enterprise would require a mandate from the CEO as part of a wider AI strategy, he said. “This technology, like no other, comes with risks and requires cross-functional support and a concerted enterprise-wide effort.” “Everyone can play around with [generative AI] but there has to be a real alignment across the organisation in terms of how it’s used. Leaders have to learn about it, and we need to get them behind it to see the value and make them into the change agent going downwards to the rest of the company,” said Ms Pavithran. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

The strategic planning workshop is the ARISE's foundational step towards a comprehensive organizational transformation aimed to strengthen and capacitate our network members. This will also help us position ARISE Philippines as a model for private sector empowerment and disaster resilience within the global ARISE network, of which PIRA Executive Director Mitch Rellosa is a Board member.

The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) has approved an ordinance establishing Sugbo Segurado, an accident and life insurance plan for all qualified provincial officials and regular employees, job-order and contractual workers, and co-terminus workers of the provincial government of Cebu. Provincial officials include the governor, vice governor, and PB members, according to a statement from the provincial government. Sugbo Segurado also covers mayors, vice mayors, and councillors of the municipalities and component cities of the Province of Cebu, all qualified barangay (local district) officials, appointed and volunteer barangay workers, all teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education and Parent-Teacher Association Federation presidents of public schools in the Province of Cebu, and canyoneering guides in Badian and Alegria. A Sugbo Segurado Committee will be created for the implementation of the ordinance, particularly in prescribing and promulgating rules and regulations. The ordinance, upon its publication in two newspapers of local circulation, took effect retroactively in February 2024. An initial amount of PHP10m ($178,000) will be allocated for the insurance scheme from the provincial budget and may be replenished when the need arises. Insurance Commission IC Cebu District Office officer-in-charge Ms. Terence Vanessa Tomol told Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia that the insurance scheme can be registered with the insurance regulator, the Insurance Commission. “The Insurance Commission has pledged its full support to Cebu Province in this endeavour,” Ms. Tomol said. IC officials say Cebu Province is a pioneer among local government bodies in operating the insurance scheme for employees and officials. Source: asiainsurancereview.com