Update committee chairs: ICISA Asia Committee meeting in Bangkok

Author: Bart Poublon, Chair of Asia Committee for 2019 - 2023

The ICISA Asia Committee meeting was held from 8 to 10 March, 2023 in the Millenium Hilton Hotel in Bangkok. It was our first Asia committee since the Covid pandemic started and as such we were a bit anxious to see how many people would be brave enough to venture to Thailand.

We were excited to see that we had a record turnout for the event with 33 delegates. We believe this is a testament to the excellent events we have had in the past and the strong network that was built previously. We had a good mix of participants from the trade credit, surety and re-insurance industry. People were flying in mainly from Asia and Europe. The event started on the Wednesday evening with our traditional cocktail reception, which was held at the Hilton rooftop bar from where we had a fantastic view over Bangkok.

Richard Wulff spoke some words to welcome all delegates and soon thereafter, the city of Bangkok treated us with a fantastic fireworks spectacle. This got the evening off to a good start and everyone had a great time networking with old acquaintances and new members, sharing food and drinks.

We had a very full schedule on Thursday. As Chair of the ICISA Asia Committee, I welcomed all delegates to the event. The day started with a presentation by Bernard Aw. Bernard is the Chief Economist of Coface in Asia. He gave an insightful presentation on the global and Asia economic outlook. This was a good prelude for the traditional tour de table where attendees present their view on the industry and current market environment.

After an excellent lunch, Stan Wu from China Taiping gave us an in-depth presentation on the China surety market, a topic that many attendees requested us to cover in detail for some time. Up next was Ahmed Madkour from Recovery Advisors who talked us through recoveries in emerging markets and gave us tips on how to spot potential fraud cases. Last speakers of the day were Neil Munroe and Ingrid Biehl from BIIA who presented us the key trends that will shape the future of the information industry. In the evening, we headed to a local restaurant called The Never Ending Summer where we enjoyed a delightful dinner. After dinner most of the participants gathered again at the rooftop bar of our hotel to enjoy a nightcap.

The second day of the meeting started with an engaging workshop by Vanessa Lim from Clyde&Co on fraud cases, accompanied with some interesting practical case studies. After that, Richard Wulff presented an overview of the advocacy activities ICISA is currently involved in for its members and Awang Sulystio talked about the results of the latest Industry LGD project. At the end of the meeting, Bart thanked Sylvie for her efforts as a Vice Chair of the committee, and with unanimous applause, passed the chairmanship of the Asia Committee to Hugh Burke of Coface with Jerry San of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions at his side as vice-chair.

The feedback we received from all participants was unanimously that the Asia committee was again a big success. We are already looking forward to next year to welcome again many of our members in another exciting location in Asia!