In 2022, a new word was coined: ‘permacrisis’. It represents a state of constant, shifting upheaval, bouncing from one emergency to the next. It was a word that characterised much of the modern era, where globalisation and fragmentation, poor policy responses and multiple geopolitical conflicts have created a volatile world.
In the course of producing this month’s magazine, it seemed that Asia (and possibly the entire world) has made its peace with permacrisis and is somehow learning to thrive in spite of it.
The two market profiles in this issue illustrate that dynamic in contrasting ways. Taiwan’s story is one of deliberate, forward-looking transformation. Having successfully navigated the transition to IFRS17, the market is now setting its sights on becoming a regional asset management centre.
The government’s timely intervention during the exchange rate crisis in 2025 ensured that its life insurers could recover without lasting damage, and the looming rollout of ICS is already prompting insurers to think creatively about capital-driven reinsurance solutions. Taiwan, in short, is a market that has decided not to wait for conditions to improve before moving forward.
Australia presents a more complicated picture. The Nat CAT events that have shaped the country’s risk landscape in recent years are not genuine surprises, but instead predictable events that have exposed gaps in surge readiness and operating models. Meanwhile, a quieter but no less consequential wave of regulatory reform is raising the bar on governance, data capabilities and board accountability.
Further, the structural shift in Australia’s retirement system from accumulation to drawdown is opening up a significant and long-underserved annuities market. Disruption and opportunity, as always, show up at your doorstep together.
At the same time, our coverage of life and health across Asia reveals a different type of crisis. Across Japan, Singapore, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the broader APAC region, a single, mostly unsurprising theme recurs: Asia is ageing, and the insurance industry has not yet fully reckoned with what that means.
Insurance, after all, is an industry that relies on historical data to do its best work, and there is no data for a population that is growing this old. The future of retirement, the future of work and the future of healthcare are affected by this ‘silver tsunami’, and it is a deep structural issue that will potentially require generations to fix.
This is forcing insurers to look at new products, new services, new ways to approach the customer and a fundamentally different relationship between insurer and policyholder. The wealthiest segments of the market are already moving in this direction, integrating life insurance into broader wealth portfolios in ways that would have seemed exotic not long ago. The question is whether the industry can extend that thinking to the populations who need it most. A
Ahmad Zaki
Editorial Director
Asia Insurance Review