A number of top Asian Reinsurers met under the aegis of the Asian Reinsurers Forum at Mumbai in February to discuss ways to strengthen the Asian reinsurance market, while looking at the possibility of facilitating the exchange of business among themselves.

Eleven reinsurers from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and India attended the summit, the third in the series following the launch in China in 2001. The second Summit was held in Japan last year.

The Summit companies are working on possible information and business exchange along with data sharing on reinsurance arrangements in order to boost regional co-operations while looking at reducing the dependence on the reinsurers outside Asia for placing of various mega risks, including energy, aviation, hull and satellite reinsurance. Currently, almost one-fourth of the global reinsurance business is done in Asia.

The Summit discussed ways of pooling the business by the Asian reinsurers, which would help strengthen the reinsurance market in the continent, especially in the wake of burgeonging reinsurance rates in Europe and the US markets after the 11 September terrorist attacks.

Some of the issues of common concerns discussed at the Asian Reinsurers forum included rising motor claims, low profitability in medical insurance, inadequacy of terrorism cover and low country rating affecting individual company rating.

The Summit reinsurers plan to meet once every year to strengthen business relationships among each other. The participating companies have agreed to work towards making optimum utilisation of the combined capacity and making best use of available technical know-how. The fourth meeting of the Asian Reinsurers Summit is to be held in Indonesia.