Lloyd???s of London to apply for onshore licence

Lloyd’s of London is applying for a Malaysia onshore licence as part of a broader push by the specialist insurer into Asia.

John Nelson, group chairman, said a licence would enable Lloyd’s to write more cover than the USD137 million of business it does via Singapore, London and Labuan, Malaysia’s offshore jurisdiction, according to a report in the Financial Times.

“If you have people on the ground you get better access and a much better understanding of the risks,” he said. “If we look at our performance around the world where we go onshore, our performance improves.”

Lloyd’s has paid out USD850 million to Malaysian groups in recent years as a result of the two Malaysia Airlines plane crashes last year and after the 2011 floods in Thailand hit local businesses. The payouts were mostly the result of Lloyd’s reinsurance of locally written protection.

Asia accounts for about 12 per cent of the group’s business — a figure Nelson expects to grow at a faster rate than the region’s economic growth as governments and companies look to close an insurance penetration gap, particularly in the region’s developing economies.