Backing the underdog
Thailand
Insurance industry to evolve from a reactive approach to a proactive "National Risk Buffer"
A regional reinsurance hub in the making
M&A trend continues to loom over local insurers
Unreliable climate patterns disrupt Thai farming and coverage
Life sector set to reach new heights in 2026
Insurance sector set for steady growth amid demographic and economic shifts
Expanding inclusive insurance in Sri Lanka
Nepal's microinsurance market faces challenges galore
Microinsurance has been a standout segment in the Philippines
India's health microinsurance sector at a critical inflection point
Microinsurance is the path forward for insurance growth to inclusion in India
Parametric microinsurance still evolving in scale and sustainability
Low correlation with traditional financial market movements keeps ILS resilient
General
The Philippines earthquake and its immediate aftermath
India's invisible backbone needs visible protection
Bancassurance allows insurer to launch first takaful product in a decade
Non-life insurers must leverage technology to insure every Indian by 2047
India's AI journey: From AI potential to trusted decisions at scale
Life & health
Singapore's new IP rider requirements offer lower premiums, higher responsibility
Misselling: RBI Directions are an additional grievance redressal forum
Asia CFO Summit: AI, resilience and growth
Thailand's 2011 floods prompted change in the insurance industry, but perhaps not as much as we think
Asian
India: Government to sell 5% stake in GIC Re
Indonesia: OECD delegation commends reform measures in insurance and pension fund sectors
Japan: Multiple births from fertility treatments hit record high after insurance expansion
Philippines earthquake expected to result in limited insured losses due to low insurance penetration: AM Best
Thailand: Life sector on track for record premiums in 2026
Products and alliances
People on the move
By Cheng Xin Yap, Tharan Ganesan, and Tananya Santipinyolert
Recent floods in major cities around Southeast Asia and other parts of the world have reopened the conversation on flood coverage in insurance products. This year alone Malaysia, Pakistan, and South Korea have all witnessed the worst floods to hit their shores in decades. As it stands, it is estimated that only 18% of all economic losses from floods in the past decade were insured.
A specially curated webinar led by Milliman US-based data analytics specialists
Well-managed actuarial outsourcing offers a viable solution to meet the increasing demand for actuarial resources
By Subhash Khanna and Shamit Gupta
No insurance product has been as adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as travel insurance. Travel and social restrictions both within and without countries were introduced and are still in force in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. With the lack of travel came a precipitous drop in travel insurance premium volumes. However, global vaccination rollouts have provided a glimmer of hope for worldwide travel, sparking a conversation on the evolution of travel insurance in a post-pandemic world. In this brief article Milliman consultants explore how ASEAN countries have been gradually opening up their borders, along with the progress shown by insurers in the region to adapt to the evolving situation and its repercussions for the travel insurance products of tomorrow.
Over the past two decades our lives have been transformed by the information-rich Internet. At the hearts of digital giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb and Netflix we often find some ranking and filtering algorithms that use customer attributes to improve and customize predictions.
By Lalit Baveja, Principal and Senior Healthcare Management Consultant, Milliman
Last year, Milliman developed a Hong Kong fulfillment ratio index to understand the gap between illustrated non-guaranteed benefits at point of sale and actual non-guaranteed benefits declared by life insurance companies in Hong Kong.
Milliman’s annual study on reported year-end 2019 embedded value (EV) and value of new business (VNB) results for 53 major multinational and domestic life insurers across Asia was released in August 2020.
Medical inflation is a key driver of health insurance costs which in turn lead to premium increases. Health insurance companies are continuously looking for ways to manage medical inflation better to keep premiums competitive for customers and to mitigate lapses.
The first edition of Milliman’s Life insurance capital regimes in Asia: Comparative analysis and implications report was published in July 2019. Well received by the market, as the first of its kind, the report has been referred to and cited several times over the last year. In view of the pace of change in, and increasing focus on, regulatory (and economic) capital across the region, Milliman has compiled an updated report a year later.
In Indonesia, insurance compliant with Syariah principles can be sold through either a Syariah business unit or “window” of a conventional insurance company or, less commonly, through a standalone Syariah insurance company. Insurance Law 40, enacted in 2014, mandates insurance companies to separate their Syariah windows from their conventional business into a separate entity, to “spin-off,” when:
Insurers and reinsurers have been outsourcing actuarial work to captive units or third-party service providers for several years. Recently the industry has witnessed renewed interest in actuarial outsourcing, with an increasing number of companies either setting up new outsourcing units or expanding their existing ones. This trend is especially true for life insurance companies, especially in light of increasing regulatory and reporting requirements, including International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17, long-duration contracts targeted improvements (LDTI), and new risk-based capital regimes in Asia