This week in insurance: Air India crash pressures reinsurers, Japan expands overseas, Gen Zs suspicious of insurance

The Philippines’ pre-need sector also by 31.23% year-on-year.

Asia-Pacific's insurance sector from 16 to 20 June saw higher demand for professional indemnity insurance (PI) whilst a separate survey showed Gen Z’s distrust on insurance policies.

The PI insurance market across Asia and Australia is diverging, with soft pricing for low-risk projects and continued pressure on premiums for complex risks due to limited capacity, Aon said.

In Asia, domestic residential and onshore projects benefit from stable or falling rates, according to Aon’s 2025 Global Construction Insurance and Surety Market Report. However, insurers are cautious about high-risk developments such as renewable energy, gas pipelines, coal plants, subsea cables, and large-scale infrastructure.

Major Japanese life insurers are likely to continue pursuing overseas acquisitions or domestic non-insurance deals, as the potential for growth in protection-type products may diminish over the next decade amidst Japan’s declining population, according to Fitch Ratings. Insurers are expected to keep issuing hybrid capital to preserve credit quality during cross-border M&A activity or periods of market volatility.

The Philippine Insurance Commission reported a 31.23% year-on-year increase in the number of pre-need plans sold as of the first quarter of 2025, rising from 166,286 plans in Q1 2024 to 218,218 in Q1 2025.

More than 50% of Gen Z identified either a lack of understanding of insurance or distrust in providers as key barriers to purchasing insurance, according to GlobalData. Whilst short-term strategies such as enhanced social media engagement and flexible product design may offer limited success, long-term improvements are needed to build sustainable relationships with younger customers.

The construction casualty insurance market in Asia remains stable, though conditions still vary, Aon’s 2025 Global Construction Insurance and Surety Market Report stated. Capacity is generally adequate, with reinsurers offering slight risk-adjusted rate reductions—typically between flat and –10%—for non-US exposures.

The crash of Air India flight AI171 on 12 June, which killed 241 passengers and crew, is set to intensify pressure on the already hardening global aviation reinsurance market. The incident, involving the first-ever fatal hull loss of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, is expected to significantly impact aviation insurers and reinsurers both in India and globally, according to GlobalData.