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LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Joseph Clabby, Regional President of Continental Europe for ACE Group, today highlighted Turkey, Poland and Russia as Europe’s top three emerging insurance market opportunities.

Speaking to insurance industry executives at the Insurance Day Summit in London, he highlighted four ‘megatrends’ which would help drive future insurance market development in these countries:

• Economic advantage – as the centre of gravity of the global economy shifts east and south
• Trade revolution – as emerging market growth radically changes the shape of future trade flows
• Investor attractiveness – as investor confidence in emerging Europe continues to increase
• Increasing wealth – as greater individual wealth drives successful business growth

In his remarks, Joe also identified five specific lines of business which presented opportunity for insurers and brokers in emerging Europe:

• Liability, where “thanks to globalisation, inward investment and gradual harmonisation with EU legislation, we think demand will grow steadily” and specialty opportunities were emerging.
• Financial lines, where D&O is best thought of as a new product in many emerging markets and European insurers and brokers have “a key role to play in providing capacity, sharing expertise and helping local markets to develop”.
• Energy and power generation, where “for those insurers with the balance sheet and the expertise, emerging Europe presents considerable prospects”.
• Multinational services, where “Western companies are increasingly seeking cover for their overseas subsidiaries in these markets, while firms based in emerging Europe are also expanding abroad and looking for compliant insurance solutions”.
• Specialty consumer lines, where “ACE will leverage its local investment to build a strong and competitive proposition for accident and health and specialty personal lines.”

Joe Clabby pointed out that prospective investors must realise that emerging Europe is not immune to what is happening elsewhere in the world. A fresh euro-crisis, Asian economic slowdown, and regional political and social instability could all pose challenges in emerging European markets.

He also highlighted the mixed underwriting performance of the property and casualty sector in some emerging European economies recently and explained that “ACE will not trade discipline for market share – so while we have ambitions plans for growth, we are prepared to be patient.”

Overall, however, he said ACE was confident about the prospects for the insurance markets in emerging Europe: “All of us in this room are rightly excited about the opportunities in markets such as China, Brazil and India. But my message today is this. The European insurance market should not look overlook the opportunities close to home.”

ENDS

About ACE:

The ACE Group is one of the world’s largest multiline property and casualty insurers. With operations in 53 countries, ACE provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. ACE Limited, the parent company of the ACE Group, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ACE) and is a component of the S&P 500 index.

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