The Indian government, along with national reinsurer, GIC Re and public-sector insurer, New India Assurance, have moved to set up a $100m marine insurance pool to cover vessels sailing through conflict zones in the Middle East region.
With the current Middle East conflict severely affecting global maritime trade, the Bharat Marine Pool will provide war-risk coverage for ships, reducing reliance on expensive foreign reinsurance and is backed by a $1.5bn sovereign guarantee. The pool will provide three types of covers; Hull, Cargo and P&I, with different sum assured for each segment, which can be utilised on a floater basis.
The pool will be managed by GIC Re, to which the reinsurer will contribute INR5bn ($54m) of capacity, with the balance coming from general insurers in the market who will be providing capacity calculated on the basis of 8% of their marine insurance premium collections till February 2026. New India Assurance will contribute INR1bn while United India Insurance will contribute INR750m of capacity to the newly established pool.
The Bharat Marine Pool will be a permanent platform to manage war related risk covers on a day to day basis with cheaper premiums and reduce dependence on overseas reinsurance capacity, which are either not available or available with unaffordable cost. According to sources at the General Insurance Council, which is coordinating with different bodies to set up the pool, the premium and other modalities for the pool are currently being worked out.