Benefitting from cell captives in a challenging insurance market
In times of crises, a strategic and sound risk management programme defines resilient organisations. Of these risk-ready organisations, those that have self-insurance vehicles hold an added advantage by being able to better absorb rising premiums which generally accompanies a crisis. Surely, if this is the case, why are there not more businesses accessing the self-insurance market? Perhaps it is a question of awareness, or the perceived cost of self-insurance?
Against this background, we bring you the 4th Asian Captive Conference 2021, aimed at dispelling these myths and exploring how businesses large and small should avail themselves to the benefits of self-insurance in order to efficiently meet their risk management needs.
Register now to secure your access to this highly anticipated virtual conference, jointly organised by Labuan International Business and Financial Centre and the Labuan International Insurance Association.
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Nik Mohamed Din Nik Musa
Mr. Nik Mohamed Din is the Director General of Labuan FSA. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Nik Mohamed Din was the Director of Money Services Business Regulation, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) since 2016.
At his previous post, he was responsible for the regulation, supervision, policy-making and development of cross-border remittance, currency exchange and currency wholesale business in Malaysia. He joined BNM in 1991 and had served in various areas within the Central Bank, including bank regulation, Islamic banking and takaful as well as market development of international finance of the Labuan IBFC.
Mr. Nik Mohamed Din is the Vice Chairman of International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM). He is also Chairman of the Financial Stability Committee of Labuan FSA and a board of director of Financial Park (Labuan) Sdn Bhd.
Besides holding a Chartered Banker certificate from the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers, Mr. Nik Mohamed Din holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Warwick. -
Abdul Halim Jantan
Abdul Halim Jantan FMII, aged 63, is a Malaysian citizen who currently sits on various private company boards and two public listed company boards.
A 41-year old veteran in the practice of Risk Management and Risk Transfer, the art and science of developing an insurance solution has always been a passionate and enjoyable part of his life. He started working with the insurance industry at twenty-two and was interested in all facets of insurance be it life or general, particularly the engineering class which never ceased to amaze him. Since then, he has evolved into becoming an entrepreneur with other business interests taking a third of his time, whilst he remained centrally focused in Insurance Advisory and Risk Management services. It has given him 'across the board' hands-on experience and the leading-edge to craft his insurance consultancy and transactional business to forge ahead of the curve.
As a pastime indulgence, he thoroughly enjoys endurance sport, hence a triathlete at heart, with swimming and cycling being his biggest passion. Truly his day is not complete without doing one or the other, six days a week. Somewhere in between, playing and walking nine holes in the golf course takes precedence occasionally.
He hopes to pass down to future generations the same love for ‘business enterprise’, that he passionately inherited from his revered predecessors. -
Ben Tausig
Ben is a Financial Services Tax Partner with Deloitte in Singapore and leads Deloitte’s insurance tax practice in South East Asia with a wider focus on Asia Pacific. He has worked in Singapore, London and New York providing domestic, cross-border and international tax advice.
Ben has more than 15 years’ experience in tax advice, mainly to insurance groups. He has significant experience in advising multinational insurance groups on international tax issues, financing, group reorganisations and transfer pricing. In addition Ben has served as an independent tax expert in litigation matters.
Ben has a wealth of experience advising insurance groups and private equity on mergers and acquisitions (buy side and sell side), providing tax due diligence and structuring advice. He also has experience leading multi-disciplinary teams designing and implementing the legal and operating structure of insurance groups either reorganising their operations or entering into new and emerging markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. -
Chris Lim
Chris Lim is a senior financial analyst in AM Best with credit ratings coverage for a portfolio of insurers and reinsurers in South East Asia. Prior to this, he worked in the analytics team of a reinsurance broker where he advised insurers on their insurance risk management. Chris is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), and he also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Actuarial Science from the University of Leicester. In addition, he holds a First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.
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Farah Jaafar
Farah is the Chief Executive Officer of Labuan IBFC Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Labuan Financial Services Authority, the statutory Regulatory Authority for Labuan International Business and Financial Centre, operating under the purview of Ministry of Finance, Malaysia. Labuan IBFC Incorporated serves as the jurisdiction’s official market development agency.
A seasoned strategic communication, market development and financial services professional, she brings with her experience spanning more than 25 years in wholesale financial services, putting her in good stead to develop Labuan IBFC as Asia’s go-to mid-shore wholesale financial intermediation centre.
Formerly attached to the Asian Institute of Finance and Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia’s national stock exchange), Farah has served in numerous senior market development and strategic communications roles.
She has also represented the Association of Stock Broking Companies Malaysia, a nationwide industry led lobby group representing Malaysian stockbrokers during the demutualisation exercise of the national exchange, allowing her a unique hands-on experience surrounding high strategic level issues relating to multiple stakeholder management, eco-system curation and long-term strategic business strategy.
Passionate about equality, financial inclusion and win-win partnerships, she strongly believes that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Farah has an LLB (Hons) from Sheffield University, United Kingdom. -
Franck Baron
Since September 2011 Franck Baron is Group General Manager Risk Management & Insurance for International SOS, the world’s leading medical and travel security services company. He’s based in Singapore.
Previously he was in charge of Business Development for Risk Consulting activites within AXA Corporate Solutions. He was Vice-President – Global Insurance & Risk Management for Firmenich (World Leader in Fragrance and Flavor Industry) in Geneva (Switzerland) since November 2003 and in Princeton (USA) since 2008. He was Deputy Director of the Risk Management Division of Groupe DANONE when he was specifically in charge of the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management program and Regional Risk Manager for Africa, Europe and Middle-East. Before that, he worked for 2 years as Risk Manager Deputy for MARS (US based Food Cy) in Europe and then he became Key International Account Executive respectively for Aon and Marsh (World leaders in the Brokerage industry) during 6 years.
He’s the founding Chairman of PARIMA (Pan Asia Risk & Insurance Management Association), the asian regional risk managers association. He was Vice-Chairman, Board Member and Head of Education for AMRAE (the French Risk managers Association) until end of 2003. He was Board Member of the SIRM (Swiss Risk Managers Association) from 2004 to 2009. He was Board Member of FERMA until August 2009. He was chairman of both Geneva 07 and Prague 09 forums. -
Graham Clark
Graham is the Chief Executive of Asia Affinity Holdings Ltd., a diversified financial services company headquartered in Hong Kong, with operating subsidiaries in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Graham started his career with a major UK insurance broker and in 1974 was posted to their Japan office. He has remained in Asia and over the course of the intervening 45 years has lived and built insurance businesses in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and a regional wholesale broking business in Singapore.
In 2000 Graham launched his own business focused on distribution, business process outsourcing and contact centre solutions for the financial services sector in Asia.
Asia Affinity is focused on providing growth and protection solutions, both non-marine and marine to the SME and Micro communities in Asia. Through their subsidiary companies, the group, is active in the Mutual Aid and Cooperative sectors in Japan; provides underwriting and sustainable solutions for Coastal communities through their marine businesses and in 2016 launched KMB, a Micro Insurance initiative to support sustainable community development, and resilience, in Asia. -
Haruhito Imakoji
Haruhito is Director of Garam Insurance PCC Ltd as well as Council Member of the Labuan International Insurance Association (LIIA).
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Malcolm Cutts-Watson
Malcolm is Managing Director of Cutts-Watson Consulting.
With over four decades in the alternative risk industry, Malcolm has gained an unique insight into captives and a sophisticated outlook for the future. He is a member of the Captive Hall of Fame that recognises outstanding contribution to the industry over the past 50 years.
Malcolm has advised many Asian corporates and governments on captive strategy and spent time in China fostering the use of captives. -
Myles Gould
Myles Gould is Head of Analytics - South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand at AM Best. Myles joined AM Best in 2013, initially based in the London office before relocating to Singapore in 2018. Whilst working for AM Best in London, Myles covered a variety of insurance markets including the UK, Europe and the Middle East, with exposure to non-life, life, insurance and reinsurance entities. Myles previously worked for Willis Towers Watson in the Global Market Security division based in the UK. Myles holds a BA (Hons) Business Management Degree.
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Oliver Schofield
Oliver brings more than 30 years of captive and ART experience to his clients. He has held a number of executive positions in the global captive and ART sectors since the mid-1980s. He started his career at Alexander Howden in 1986 before moving to Aon in 1996, to RKH Reinsurance Brokers in 2012, to RFIB Group in 2016 before joining Principal Re Limited’s Captive & ART consulting team in 2018.
His particular area of focus has been the incorporation and reinsurance of captives, cell captives and association captives and a myriad of ART structures for a range of different industries from across the world. Specifically in Asia, he has worked with clients in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Oliver has been a speaker at numerous captive and ART industry conferences and has published on topics including the Global, Asian, European and American insurance and reinsurance markets, Captives and ART.
Oliver graduated from the University of Southampton with a BA (Joint Honours) in French and English. -
Roy Sharma
Roy Sharma is the current Chairman of the Labuan International Insurance Association as well as the Principal Officer and Managing Director of Asia Reinsurance Brokers (Labuan) Ltd.
Other than being the country manager for Malaysia in role at Asia Reinsurance Brokers, he is also responsible for developing and assisting their clients in Asia in certain specialised areas of insurance. His specialised areas include Political, Project & Credit Risk Insurance, Professional Indemnity, Management Liability Insurance, Financial Lines Insurance, Casualty Insurance, Extended Warranty Insurance and Affinity & Niche Solutions.
He is a sought after speaker and has presented a variety of papers in conferences and conducted numerous training seminars for insurance companies and insurance buyers around the region.
Roy also serves as the President Commissioner of PT ARB Indonesia and a Board member of ARB’s parent company. -
Scott Ryrie
Scott entered the insurance industry in 1977 straight after leaving school. Scott spent 4 years in the direct market with City Mutual and Sphere Drake. Moving to Munich Re in 1980, Scott worked across the Marine and Casualty classes. In 1986, Scott joined Alexander Howden (Australia) and spend 2 years working in the London market.
On returning to Australia, Scott started Nac Re in Australia which became XL Re and then moved to Singapore to run the region for XL Re in 2002. Scott then joined Allianz Re, Singapore, as the Regional Chief Executive Officer in 2008 until 2011. From 2012 to 2013, Scott worked at Guy Carpenter before starting “Ryrie Consulting”. Scott joined AM Best as Commercial Director, Asia-Pacific in 2016 and moved back to Sydney in 2017 as CEO of RMIA.
In April 2019, Scott returned to Singapore and AM Best. Scott is the Managing Director & Co-CEO at A.M. Best Asia-Pacific (Singapore) Pte Ltd. -
Shiwei Jin
Ms. Shiwei Jin is Global Programs & Captives Regional Director, APAC, for AXA XL. She is responsible for driving Global Program and Captive business as well as developing strong relationships with AXA XL’s broker partners and clients across APAC. Shiwei is a key member of the Global Program Centre of Excellence team. She has over 10 years’ experience in the insurance industry and has a proven track record in working with clients to provide bespoke international solutions and excellent service. Shiwei holds a Master's degree in International Relations. She won Captive Professional of the Asia Captive Awards 2018.
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Steven Dewhurst
Steven’s 30+ year legal career has seen him specialise in insurance and progress to partner across several international law firms, including a period as a Managing Partner.
As Director at CSLB Asia, Steven provides contract management services to help clients with their commercial and contractual relationships with business partners. He also provides consulting services to a Fortune 500 company, a Hong-King based law firm, and is a Semester Professor at Bond University. -
Yuan Tian
Yuan Tian is a Senior Financial Analyst and joined AM Best in 2019. Before joining AM Best, she worked for several insurance and reinsurance companies in London and Singapore. She is a fully qualified actuary with experience in insurance pricing, reserving, risk management and data analytics. She has a degree in Mathematics from University of Cambridge and a Master degree in Applied Statistics from University of Oxford.
