By bringing its Singapore and Malaysia operations under one structure, specialty insurer Markel claims it now offers brokers and clients ‘a more connected and coordinated regional platform’. Whether that platform carries extra capacity for contractors and consultants is a separate question, and the restructuring itself does not answer it.
Markel Insurance has made Kevin Leung managing director, Southeast Asia, with immediate effect. He comes from the post of chief underwriting officer for Asia Pacific, and has been with Markel for more than three years. His earlier career is weighted towards liability-type business: he spent more than six years at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, most recently as head of casualty & finpro for Asia Pacific, and brings 28 years of industry experience. That is a sound profile for professional liability, the line consultants buy. It says nothing direct about engineering or construction risks, and Markel has not linked the appointment to them.
Earlier in September, Sucheng Chang, Markel’s managing director for Asia Pacific, outlined an ambition to nearly double its regional book within five years. Leung reports to Chang and will support local and regional teams on strategy, product offerings and broker and client relationships. In Malaysia, Markel appointed Weng Fatt Tan in July to lead casualty underwriting, adding a dedicated casualty underwriting capability in the country. Jasminder Kaur stays as country head of Malaysia and keeps day-to-day running of the business.
Growth on this scale needs underwriters as well as ambition, and Markel is recruiting a successor to Leung as Asia Pacific chief underwriting officer. Who fills that post, and whether the person comes from casualty, property or specialty lines, will say more about appetite than the unified structure does. A new casualty team in Malaysia and a casualty-trained head of Southeast Asia point to liability growth. Whether that reaches construction professional indemnity or engineering cover is unproven.
Markel has not disclosed the size of its Southeast Asian book, the baseline for the near-doubling target or the lines it will prioritise in Singapore and Malaysia. Nor has it set out capacity limits for contractors and consultants. Buyers of construction professional indemnity and engineering cover should ask their brokers whether Markel is quoting on those risks, at what limits and whether the new Malaysian casualty team will write them. A growth-minded insurer entering a line can widen choice at renewal; one that stays out leaves the market as it was.