Allianz expands ART, weather & ILS focused business unit to Asia Pacific

Global insurance and reinsurance giant Allianz is expanding its suite of alternative risk transfer products to the Asia Pacific region, as its commercial insurance arm Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE targets growth in the region with a new Alternative Risk Transfer line of business.

Under the umbrella of Alternative Risk Transfer sit products including weather risk insurance, a range of reinsurance offerings, fronting services, and the work Allianz undertakes with insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors and funds.

Allianz has hired Richard Green, who was previously at broker Marsh, to run the unit as Regional Head of ART, Asia Pacific.

Allianz said it is responding to the increasing demand for ART solutions in the Asia Pacific region, both from large corporate clients as well as the need for innovative structured solutions and specialised services for re/insurers in the region as well.

The offerings from the Allianz ART division in Asia Pacific will include multi-line insurance offerings, weather risk insurance, parametric insurance, reinsurance solutions and also services to help ceding companies and clients access the capital markets through insurance-linked securities (ILS).

The Allianz ART model seeks to bring together insurance, reinsurance and financial market techniques to create products that fill gaps left by traditional coverage, or address large exposures, or by routing risk to the most efficient forms of capital.

Mark Mitchell, Regional CEO, Asia Pacific, explained, “Alternative risk transfer is not a new concept to the region and we have had success with ART solutions here in the past. However, such business within Asia Pacific has traditionally required bringing in the expertise of colleagues from other regions. In light of the increasing awareness and demand for the value of ART solutions regionally, I believe the time is right to build a dedicated team around Richard Green to drive business and improve on our value proposition to clients.”

Allianz recently restructured its Alternative Risk Transfer division, breaking out the ILS related services into a Capital Solutions group.

This model will also be adopted in Asia Pacific, with Capital Solutions playing the role of a specialty business that facilitates the transformation of event-driven insurance risk into investment products for capital market investors.

In his role at AGCS, Green will take on responsibility for underwriting execution for ART business in Asia Pacific as well as Capital Solutions for the region.

For ceding companies and large corporate risk managers in Asia Pacific, the Allianz ART and in particular Capital Solutions business will open up the capital markets and collateralized sources of insurance or reinsurance capacity to buyers across the region.