Singapore is aiming to have a P&I Club in the medium term and is also working to have its own clause, a senior industry executive has said.
“Our next initiative will take a little bit longer, may be a couple of years, but we are moving towards having a Singapore Clause,” said Ms Gina Lee-Wan, Chairman of the legal and insurance committee under the Singapore Shipping Association.
A clause comprises the terms of the insurance cover or the wordings on which the cover is underwritten on.
The initial process to put in place a team which will draft the Singapore Clause has started and the idea will be to look at gaps between various international forms or plans and “build an overarching product that is missing at the moment, reported Platts citing Ms Lee-Wan.
SWRM – First Singapore-based national mutual war risks insurance
The first Singapore-based national mutual war risks insurance, the SWRM, was launched in 2015 by P&I underwriter, The Standard Club Asia.
SWRM’s terms are an offshoot of The Standard Club Asia, with the club’s tailored war risks wording being used as a standard but other international forms such as Nordic, German, French and American can also be accommodated.
“With SWRM, Singapore already has the vehicle. We now need to add on what is tailored for us. We will look at the existing plans, what has worked and not worked and try to fill the gaps,” said Ms Lee-Wan, who is also the co-head of the maritime and aviation practice at law firm Allen & Gledhill.
While drafting the Singapore Clause, the team will look at the risks the maritime industry is facing and build it into its SWRM cover.
SWRM is now building reserves and is translating into greater income for the Singapore insurance market, Ms Lee-Wan said. SWRM is fully reinsured and the capital supporting the mutual has increasingly come from the reinsurers based in Singapore. A