Reinsurance chief visits Samoa

“The purpose of the visit is to see for myself the issues and difficulties you face and thereby ensuring that the solutions we provide are designed for the island of Samoa and not just a solution dreamed up in London and Singapore which has worked somewhere else in the world”

The Chief Executive Officer for one of the fastest growing Reinsurance Brokers in the Asia-Pacific region, Nick Cochrane, is visiting Samoa.

The Chief Executive Officer for one of the fastest growing Reinsurance Brokers in the Asia-Pacific region, Nick Cochrane, is visiting Samoa. Mr. Cochrane with his wife Helen are being hosted in Apia by local insurer, Federal Pacific Insurance Ltd (F.P.I). It is Mr. and Mrs. Cochrane’s first visit to Samoa and it follows meetings with Federal Pacific Insurance at their New Zealand and Tonga offices.

The company, THB Singapore (Reinsurance Brokers), has worked hand in hand with Federal Pacific Insurance for a number of years and in particularly on several multi- million tala risks following the devastating 2009 Tsunami and Cyclone Evan in 2012.

“We’re very excited to welcome Nick and Helen to Samoa, for the first time – our partnerships with large groups such as THB Singapore essentially have a strong component of trust built over the years, but it is still vitally important that our supporters have a chance to experience our operating environment,” said Federal Pacific Insurance’s GM for Tonga and Samoa, Namulauulu Sami Leota.

“Whenever there’s a major natural disaster in the Pacific, reinsurance underwriters would review their pricing, and with the high risk of natural disasters surrounding us for the past years, it has been an uphill battle for local underwriters like FPI to keep the premiums that we pass onto our clients at a reasonable level. “Thankfully, THB and the Lloyds Syndicates they use, have been loyal and supported us right through the difficult times.”

FPI’s goal as a local underwriter is to ensure that their clients’ assets are well covered and at the same time they have reinsurance support to back up their obligations under their policies.

“That is exactly how we managed to get through the many disasters of the past years, and in particular the Floods, the Tsunami as well as the recent Cyclone Evan. Reinsurance support enabled us to respond to the over 100 claims that were filed after Evan.”

Mr. Cochrane has been in the insurance business for over 40 years, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and has worked in London, Bermuda and is now based in Singapore. Mr. Cochrane has extensive experience from underwriting and broking in the Lloyd’s market and looks to provide insurance and risk management solutions which will assist businesses in reducing their exposure to risks.

Whilst this is his first visit to Samoa, he is very sensitive to individual island’s identities, having regularly travelled through the Caribbean discussing each island’s problem with the annual hurricane season.

Unfortunately, as in the Pacific Islands, wind is not the only natural catastrophe that the islands face. Whilst natural catastrophes are inevitably the focal point for discussion when talking insurance on these islands, exposures could be the traditional property and liability classes or something more esoteric such as fraud for banks or prize indemnity.

“The purpose of the visit is to see for myself the issues and difficulties you face and thereby ensuring that the solutions we provide are designed for the island of Samoa and not just a solution dreamed up in London and Singapore which has worked somewhere else in the world,” said Mr. Cochrane Namulauulu further commented that “we have a very good working relationship with Nick and his team in Singapore, and we like to think this is partially due to a sense of adventure passed down from Nick’s mother to him.

We understand Nick’s mother visited Samoa on her honeymoon more than 60 years ago – quite an adventure.”

THB Group was Established in 1968, the Group includes one of the largest and most successful Lloyd's broking operations in the specialty market sector, which now also includes Colemont London broking teams.

THB is part of AmWINS Group, Inc. the largest P&C wholesale broker in the United States with over $9.5bn in annual premium placements.

Established in Singapore in 1997 (as PWS East Asia Pte Ltd), THB Singapore is a subsidiary of THB Group.

The experienced team delivers the highest quality service to clients (often in conjunction with colleagues in London) in all classes of treaty and facultative reinsurance including all class of insurance products.