Ravi Menon: From risk to resilience - reinsurance for Asia's protection gaps

Speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the 19th Singapore International Reinsurance Conference 2023, Singapore, 30 October 2023.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
I am delighted to join you at the 19th Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC).

A Decade of Progress

I last spoke at SIRC 10 years ago. I shared then MAS' vision and strategies for Singapore's reinsurance industry.

I said then that there were three major forces driving demand for insurance in Asia:

• Asia is growing – rising affluence, expanding trade, and infrastructure development.
• Asia is vulnerable – highly prone to natural catastrophes.
• Asia is ageing – growing elderly population and retirement security needs.

The three trends have largely unfolded as expected and will continue to be relevant in the next decade. If anything, Asia's demand for insurance protection has heightened with the interaction between growth and ageing as well as the impact of climate change.

We painted a vision in 2013 for Singapore to become a global insurance marketplace. We set out four strategies:

• increase supply-side capacity, in both volume and expertise;
• promote insurance demand, both locally and in the Asia-Pacific;
• develop a true marketplace, where sellers and buyers come together to trade risks; and
• foster a conducive business environment.