Chubb Opens Australian Unit

Chubb Opens Australian Unit

NU Online News Service, April 25, 3:27 p.m. EST? Chubb Group of Insurance Companies announced today it has opened a new office in Melbourne, Australia, to handle growing demand for political risk insurance in the Asia-Pacific region.

Pat Skold, Chubb's senior vice president and worldwide underwriting manager for political risk, said in a statement that the office would be staffed by seasoned political risk professionals who are knowledgeable in the region.

The Warren, N.J.-based company has political risk offices in London to serve Europe and Warren for the North American market. Recent events throughout the world have heightened interest in this product, Mr. Skold said.

Chubb said political risk products include confiscation, expropriation, nationalization and deprivation (CEND) coverage with a capacity of up to $75 million and contract frustration and wrongful calling of guarantee protection. The latter two each have a capacity of up to $37.5 million.

CEND protects companies against the financial loss of an investment due to acts of government such as confiscation or deprivation of assets or similar actions, Chubb said. There are also insurance options including political violence, currency inconvertibility and cross-border war.

Contract frustration provides coverage for export or import transactions. Wrongful calling of guarantee indemnifies a company for the value of bonds posted in support of contracts entered into in foreign markets. Both products are available when a business is dealing with either a private or a government buyer, the company said.