Singapore-domiciled Odeon Insurance Re Pte Ltd is the first Asian captive to become a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Sustainable Insurance.
Odeon is owned by International SOS and Franck Baron, group deputy director of risk management and insurance at the healthy and security service firm, said he was “proud” to make the move.
“We commit to help build more resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities and economies,” Baron said in a LinkedIn post.
“By applying the global framework to our business activities, we will be able to better address environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities.”
Captive Intelligence has reported extensively on captives beginning to sign up to the UN’s PSI.
The UNI PSI serves as a global framework for the insurance industry to address environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.
The Netherlands domiciled captive owned by Italian energy multinational Enel was the first to become a signatory in 2022 with Antonio Nervini, of Enel Insurance N.V., saying it was the “finishing touch” for the captive’s sustainability focus.
In February, Switzerland-domiciled Sonepar International Re became the second captive signatory of the PSI.
Sonepar is an independent family-owned French multinational providing business-to-business distribution of electrical products, solutions and related services. It had sales of €26.4bn in 2021.
François Beaume, vice president for risks and insurance at Sonepar, said: “Being a member of the PSI initiative reinforces our position as a leading pioneer of the energy transition, by leveraging risk management and insurance and operating with complete integrity.”
In the podcast recorded at the European Captive Forum in Luxembourg, Nervini was joined by Aon’s Ciaran Healy and Butch Bacani, the UN’s programme leader for the PSI, who said they expected to see more captives sign up.
“What this is going to do and the work that Enel has done is a proof of concept that a captive actually has a role to play and can do something very positive around sustainability,” Healy said.
“There is a little bit of a myth of ‘well, the captive is small, I can’t do much around it’.
“But when you think about the protection gap, captives can potentially access reinsurance. So we can make that connection between the corporate ESG agenda, and actual issues on the ground. That’s a really important point.
“I would be absolutely certain, especially after listening to this, that we will get a lot more enquiries and a lot more captives signing up to the PSI.”