A major insurer of speciality liability, technology and cyber risk has launched its first overseas office.
Delta Insurance New Zealand has selected Singapore as a result of its position as a global centre of finance, commerce and technology as well as the regional opportunities it will unlock and its similarities with the New Zealand fintech and technology industries.
Insurance Business spoke to Delta managing director
Ian Pollard, who said the seeds of Delta Insurance Singapore started when the New Zealand operation was founded in 2014.
“This was partly a result of the connection
Craig Kirk and I have with Delta Insurance’s newly appointed managing director Eugene Cheong. We worked together previously, trust each other, and understand what business model we’re after, which made it easy to expand to Singapore,” said Pollard.
“There are also many synergies between New Zealand and Singapore, which include the fact that both countries are competitive, small but nimble, technologically oriented, focused on innovation, outwardly looking, open to business, and characterised by their concentration of SMEs.”
The Singapore operation is also similar to the New Zealand one in that it is locally owned.
“Cheong and the operation’s stakeholders own 30%,” said Pollard.
Pollard elaborated that Singapore provides an operating environment where Delta’s business methodologies and core principles, that have proven to be so disruptive in New Zealand, are easily transferrable.
“In Singapore, Delta will introduce technology solutions that will provide a level of service not experienced in the market to date. Our technology will streamline processes, reducing the time taken for application submission, quotation and policy issuance from the current industry timeframe of typically one month to within 24 hours for Delta clients,” he said.
Pollard added that Delta has developed its own underwriting and claims system over the past three years.
“Our system, known as Delta Insurance Management, is built within a Microsoft and Amazon web-services' framework and is fully cloud-based.
“It deals with backend processes that clog up other companies with their legacy systems. This enables Delta to manage its information much better than most insurance companies.
“Delta’s technology solutions have been welcomed in New Zealand and have shown great results, with Delta fast approaching 7,000 clients and experiencing 250% growth in revenue this year and since its first audited financial year in 2014/2015.”
Delta enters the Singapore market as the first cyber and technology Lloyd’s cover holder in Singapore. A timely move as Singapore’s drive towards a digital economy increases the value and importance of data.
Pollard emphasised that essentially Delta is in the business of providing solutions to brokers. “We’re technologically focused and all our products will be building on what we have in the marketplace at the moment,” he said.
“The way we see it is if our partners and insurance partners and their clients succeed, we succeed.”
Since 1 April Delta created an international holding company to invest in Delta Singapore and it also created an IT company to house its IT and digital assets.
“As our work in New Zealand with the National Cyber Policy Office and Connect Smart has helped shape and improve New Zealand’s cyber security framework, particularly for business, we see Delta undertaking a similar role in Singapore,” said Pollard.
He anticipates that Singapore and Asia Pacific will be one of the fastest growing regions for cyber insurance, increasing from around US$50m today to US$500m by 2025. “Cybercrime is now the second most prevalent economic crime in Singapore, with 43% of companies impacted and costing Singapore more than SGD1.25bn annually. An opportunity highlighted by the impact of the current global Petya ransomware attack,” said Pollard.
The move to Singapore forms part of its broader business strategy to grow globally and launch in ten countries in ten years.
Delta Insurance has also committed to further expansion in New Zealand with plans to open in Christchurch in August 2017 to strengthen the South Island arm of the business.
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