AXA partners with Chaucer to expand in Africa

Lloyd’s of London’s specialty insurance group, Chaucer, has formed a strategic partnership with AXA to develop a new specialty insurance business in Africa.

Faced with low interest rates in the US and the Eurozone, insurers are looking to emerging markets for growth, according to Reuters. The insurance market in sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly attractive to global insurers thanks to dramatic and sustained economic expansion and demographic transformation, Ernst & Young reported. African innovations such as mobile and cashless payments may soon disrupt developed insurance markets, according to EY. Specialty insurance can cover anything from insuring oil rigs to footballers’ legs and currency inconvertability to political violence.

The new entity, AXA Africa Speciality Risks, will insure risks in the political, energy and infrastructure sectors, according to a statement, LeFigaro reported. Partnership with AXA’s African distribution network will help Chaucer extend its specialty underwriting reach and access more specialty business in this rapidly growing market.