英国主流保险媒体“Insurance Insider” 对董事长鲍荣清的专访 (2015-11-17)

近日,英国主流保险媒体“Insurance Insider”就环亚保险经纪成为中国首家劳合社经纪人向董事长鲍荣清进行了专程访问。
关于此次专访报道,请详见如下:

SAIB becomes first Chinese Lloyd’s broker

Charlie Thomas 9 November 2015
Shanghai Asian Insurance Brokers (SAIB) has become the first Chinese intermediary to become a registered Lloyd’s broker, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
After receiving full approval from Lloyd’s on Friday (6 November), the broker will initially place business through the Lloyd’s China platform as well as through email and telephone correspondence with syndicates in London that have sponsored SAIB’s application.
However, the broker plans to apply for a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority, which would allow it to send staff to the UK to place business in London.
The company’s chairman Bao Rong Qing told The Insurance Insider that he and his firm considered it a great honour to become a Lloyd’s broker.
“Being a Lloyd’s broker will help us learn from the operational skill of such a huge platform with its information resources, promotion of overseas risk management, and also help train our reinsurance professionals with the international vision to help us develop our reinsurance business,” he said.
He went on to say that SAIB faced some “very big challenges” bridging the gap in its understanding of the London market and Lloyd’s syndicates, in terms of data and standards of risk management.
“Recently we had a big breakthrough in direct liability insurance in China that would be generally covered by a domestic insurance company under a ‘special risk consideration of public interests’ that differs from the practice in most other countries,” Bao explained.
“Therefore we often reached a bottleneck that the syndicates were very cautious in underwriting some lines such as environmental insurance.
“We still believe that with our accumulation of local direct business in combination with being a registered Lloyd’s broker, we will be able to facilitate more communication and best practice sharing between the markets in order to enhance our understanding and pricing of risks.”
The broker will focus on liability and specialty, having previously supported the Chinese government in developing areas of liability insurance such as underground space liability, comprehensive flood control wall liability and oil pollution covers for river boats.
Bao referenced the assistance he and his firm had received from the UK government’s Trade & Investment department, as well as Lloyd’s and Xchanging, which allowed SAIB to complete its application process within a year.
He added that since the Chinese domestic insurance industry was relatively young, it was important for his firm to learn from the UK and other advanced countries.
“London is full of professionals, data models, systems and processes built and refined in the process of the development of the London market over a long period of time that should be learnt from by our Asian colleagues,” he said.
In addition, Bao highlighted the difference in regulatory styles between China and the UK, with China’s regulation being very strict whereas in the UK requirements were “looser and more comfortable”.
The broker expects other intermediaries to follow its lead and apply to become Lloyd’s-registered soon. Bao added that SAIB could look at expanding its international reach further in future.
“CIRC [the Chinese regulator] is following our developments closely and is encouraging local brokers to develop business globally. Being a registered Lloyd’s broker is also an important step in the internationalisation of our company and in future we will try and use the platform to further develop our strengths.
“Over time, I believe we will push for internationalisation in targeted overseas areas in accordance with the development of our international strategy.”
SAIB was established in 2004 and is the only local member of the BrokersLink Alliance in mainland China.
In 2014, SAIB’s insurance premium reached 500mn yuan ($78mn), with brokerage standing at 50mn yuan. Liability insurance accounts for 50 percent of its total profit, with energy insurance accounting for another 25 percent and the remainder made up by traditional insurance such as property.