New Swiss Re Study Examines Emerging Markets

June 27, 2000

Swiss Re has issued a new Sigma study which examines the expansion of the international insurance community into the “emerging markets” of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Published as “Emerging markets:the insurance industry in the face of globalisation,” it “examines the background to the globalisation process in the merging markets. In particular it looks at which markets are being targeted for investment by global primary insurers.”

Among other observations the study notes that in the 90’s emerging markets, despite economic crises in Asia, Latin America and Russia, offered 9 percent overall growth, twice as high as that in industrialized countries.

“Most of the global primary insurers examined in the study currently generate between 3% and 5% of their premium income in the emerging markets; for some companies, such as AIG or Aetna, this figure is already higher than 10%,” notes the study.

Swiss Re sees further growth in emerging markets, as they develop, and liberalize their insurance markets; it cites the recent agreements with China and the U.S. and EU to open its insurance market.

The complete report, Sigma 4/2000, can be obtained at: http://www.swissre.com.

Topics Trends Swiss Re

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