Lloyd’s RFIB Wins Intermediary License in Saudi Arabia

Lloyd's insurance and reinsurance broker RFIB Group Ltd. said it has received an intermediary license from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency to conduct insurance and reinsurance business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The new insurance and reinsurance broking license "is the final stage in our establishing a domestic presence in this important and growing market," said Anthony Harris, general manager of RFIB's Riyadh-based office in Saudi Arabia, in a statement.

Harris is a former British ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and has worked for RFIB in the Middle East since February 2006. Naji Al Tamimi joined the new office as deputy general manager. He was previously key accounts manager at Malath Cooperative Insurance & Reinsurance Co.

"We now intend to seek further recruits from the local market, working closely with our international team in London to aid staff training and development," said Adrian Spooner, managing director of the Middle East at RFIB.

RFIB has handled reinsurance risks from the Saudi Arabian market for nearly 30 years. About two-thirds of the group's activity is reinsurance or wholesale business. Its client base includes international companies, insurance and reinsurance groups and Lloyd's syndicates.

In the Middle East, Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar are the three most important markets in the Persian Gulf due to their importance as emerging international financial centers, although Saudi Arabia offers the greatest potential given the population size and oil-based economy. Growth in the takaful and retakaful, or Shariah-compliant insurance and reinsurance markets, is anticipated to continue this year, though "perhaps not at the heady highs that were once projected," said Nick Charteris-Black, managing director of market development for A.M. Best (BestWire, April 12, 2011).

"The two drivers in the market are family and medical, because it's penetrating populations that wouldn't otherwise have bought any sort of insurance protection at all," Charteris-Black noted.

In property insurance, takaful insurers "tend to be competing much more with the conventional insurance market, and so the growth area would certainly seem to be on the family and medical side," said Charteris-Black. "Medical is attractive because of the number countries that have compulsory medical insurance, and that's another major driver of the market."

(By Iris Lai, Hong Kong bureau manager: Iris.Lai@ambest.com)