Bowring Marsh Opens Hong Kong Office

Bowring Marsh, a specialist insurance placement unit of broker Marsh Inc., has opened an office in Hong Kong with an eye on international business opportunities in the greater China region.

The Hong Kong office provides "greater placement support for business coming out of greater China and access to international markets for global Marsh clients, especially those emanating from the Pacific and Middle East regions," said the broker in a statement. Bowring Marsh specializes in property, earthquake, business interruption and casualty risks.

"Greater China is a significant focus for Marsh and the rapid development of insurance markets in the region makes it a prime location to access capacity for inwards international business," said Nick Bacon, chief executive officer of Bowring Marsh.

China's insurance industry reported a 33.6% rise in premium income to 799.86 billion yuan (US$118 billion) in the first half of this year, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. Nonlife and life insurance premiums rose 33.5% and 33.7%, respectively.

Hong Kong's nonlife insurance sector reported a 14.4% rise in net written premiums to HK$6.46 billion (US$831 million) in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. Total in-force life insurance premium rose 9.3% to HK$40.43 billion in the first quarter. Reinsurance net written premiums increased to HK$1.3 billion from HK$786 million.

"The launch of Bowring Marsh Hong Kong will help us to meet that growing demand more effectively, and enable us to develop specialist product offerings from the Hong Kong market to support clients across Asia," said Bacon in a statement.

The new office will also support the growing needs of Marsh retail operations after the acquisition of HSBC Insurance Brokers Ltd. this year, according to Bacon. The Hong Kong office will be led by Godwin Chan, who joined from Marsh in Hong Kong.

In May, Bowring Marsh opened an office in Tokyo which places large and complex international programs in specialized property, earthquake and business interruption risks for non-Japanese companies in Japan's insurance market. It will also work with Marsh retail brokers to access international insurers for Japanese clients. Tokyo has been a major regional center for property insurance and it is growing in importance as an international insurance hub, with active inward and outward business potential (BestWire, June 22, 2010).

Bowring Marsh has eight major insurance hubs including Bermuda, Dublin, London, Miami, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich.

(By Iris Lai, Hong Kong bureau manager: [email protected])