insuring the Pacific: A

INSURANCE IN THE PACIFIC: Aprofitable

insuring the Pacific: A affair; cyclones ancall

The regularity of eyelones in the Pacific, coupled with the occasionally highly individual habits of some of the region’s traders, has traditionally lent an atmosphere of adventure to the insurance industry in the region.

Yet according to underwriters working the area, while business in the Pacific might be a good deal smaller than in, say, Japan, or South-east Asia, it is at least stable and also generally profitable, which seems to mean that those in the field are likely to stay in there, providing their essential business service,

The island business is di vided, mainly, among corn panies from Australia (QBE In ternational), New Zealand (Na tional and NZI), Britain (GRE), U.S.A. (AIG), and India (New India Insurance). The life confi panies, like CML, National Mutual, AMP and others, have also operated in the region for many years, although their business is more confined be cause of the low income levels of the small communities, and the tightly-knit family system, QBE Insurance Group is the only fully Australian-owned in surance company trading throughout the Pacific and Asia

and has incorporated local companies in the Pacific in Fiji and PNG under the banner of the the Queensland Insurance name. Its history is also inextric ably linked with the Pacific, for it traces its origins back to the North Queensland Insurance Company, launched in 1886 by Sir James Bums, the remark able founder of Burns, Philp and Company. Bums, Philp, and the Bums family continue their close association with QBE and a Burns remains on the board of directors as chairman to this day.

QBE Insurance Group is also still expanding. Earlier this year

they appointed Hilton Leigh as their first local manager to their newly-established Tokyo office.

The company has had a licence to trade in Japan since 1971 and has done so firstly through the Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company Ltd., and now in association with The Sumitomo Marine and Fire In surance Company Ltd. This is a reciprocal relationship and two of Sumitomo’s Japanese ex ecutives work from QBE’s headquarters in Sydney’s Pitt street.

Pacific insurers consider they provide an essential service to the small countries of the re-

The elegant courtyard of QI’s redevelopment on Suva’s Victoria Parade.

gion, enhancing investment by removing at least some of the risks of operating in fairly re mote, or cyclone-prone areas.

Shipping, so vital to island countries, could not operate properly without them.

But, if the Pacific islands are a small market, that in Asia is huge, and still growing. In Japan, for instance, the annual premiums paid for fire and general insurance exceed $22 billion and, as industrialisation continues to grow in countries like Singapore and Malaysia, so the insurance industry will grow with it.

One of the other companies early in the area was GRE, then known as the ’’Guardian,” who extended from their London headquarters to Australia in 1879. They had earlier (1835) established an office in China through the Union Insurance Society of Canton. That or ganisation is now headquar tered in Hong Kong and oper ates throughout Asia and South-east Asia.

The Pacific arm, trading as GRE Pacific Insurances Ltd., operates in Papua New Guinea, where they hold about 18% of the country’s business in their offices in Lae, Rabaul and Port Moresby. The company traces its origins back to the fifties when Atlas, Royal Exchange Assurance, and Guardian were all writing general business in what was then an Australian administered U.N. Trust Terri tory. Royal Exchange and Guardian also operated in the Solomon Islands.

In Fiji the Pacific Insurance Company, Ltd., began in 1919 and became a subsidiary of Atlas Insurance in 1928. In

1962 control passed to the Australian arm of the firm and, since 1974, all their Fiji business has been done by GRE Insur ance, Ltd.

QBE Insurance Group, has always had very close links with the Pacific, although today its operations are world-wide, with offices and agencies in 21 coun tries, QBE Insurance Group In ternational Operations is di vided into three main regions, Asia, Pacific and U.K./Europe, under international manager Brian Cotterill. John Laidlaw, who was for some time in Fiji with now-retired Lloyd Liddell, heads the Pacific region, and the Asian region is run by Neil Seddon.

In Fiji the company operates as Queensland Insurance (Fiji) Ltd., the name Queensland In surance being a shortened form of the original North Queens land Insurance Company, founded by Sir James Bums.

The Fiji operation has been running for 65 years, and now employs 32 staff, and has offices in Suva, Lautoka and Labasa. In PNG the staff num bers 63, and trades under the name Queensland Insurance (PNG) Ltd, with offices in Port Moresby, Arawa, Lae, Madang, Mt Hagen, and Rabaul.

Altogether QBE Insurance operates in 10 Pacific countries, ranging from their larger opera tions in PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tahiti, to Niue and Norfolk Island.

But, perhaps curiously, QBE has traded longest in the Pacific not in an Australian-linked terri tory, but a French one. They trace their origins in Noumea back for almost 100 years.