AM Best Asia-Pacific Managing Director and CEO Rob Curtis said the region’s insurance market is entering a powerful growth phase, driven by modernization, capacity expansion, and the region’s still-low insurance penetration.
Curtis discussed findings from the first Asia-Pacific Insurance Market Report, which combines analysis from 16 countries to track economic, political, and financial system risks.
The report also expands AM Best’s Asia-Pacific benchmarking work, integrating updates on delegated underwriting authority enterprises (DUAEs), particularly managing general agents (MGAs), and how performance assessments can support their market role.
Asia-Pacific remains one of the strongest global growth regions for insurance, Curtis said. “It’s a region with a relatively young population and still very low penetration. The potential for expansion is enormous,” he said. “With more capital and capacity entering the market, the growth outlook is remarkable.”
He pointed to the ongoing rollout of risk-based capital frameworks and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) requirements as key regulatory developments reshaping the landscape. These initiatives, he said, bring more discipline and transparency to how risk and capital are analyzed.
Many regulators are now focusing not only on solvency but also on conduct-of-business standards
Curtis cited Australia’s new requirement for service providers, including DUAEs and MGAs, to undergo formal carrier assessments as a recent example. “Our DUAE performance assessment can play a key role in supporting these efforts.”
Curtis said DUAEs and MGAs are becoming crucial players in the regional insurance ecosystem by providing additional market capacity and specialized expertise.
“Markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore are especially important hubs,” he said. “These entities give carriers the ability to reach new customers and expand their portfolios efficiently.”
We think the message is clear: regulatory evolution, combined with underpenetrated markets and growing delegated authority capacity, is setting the stage for one of the most dynamic growth cycles Asia-Pacific’s insurance industry has seen in decades.
