Singapore is looking to establish a home grown P&I Club

Singapore is looking to have a protection and indemnity (P&I) club in the medium term and is also working to have its own clause. Gina Lee-Wan, chairman of the legal and insurance committee under the Singapore Shipping Association said, “Our next initiative will take a little bit longer, may be a couple of years, but we are moving towards having a Singapore Clause.” A clause includes the details of insurance cover or the wordings on which the cover is underwritten on. The first Singapore-based national mutual war risks insurance, the SWRM, was launched in 2015 by P&I underwriter. SWRM’s terms are an extension of The Standard Club Asia, with the club’s tailored war risks wording being used as a base with others, such as Nordic, German, French and American also being used if needed. A team has been put in place which will draft the Singapore clause and will look at gaps in a number of international forms or plans and “build an overarching product that is missing at the moment.” Lee-Wan, who is also the co-head of the maritime and aviation practice at law firm Allen & Gledhill said, “With SWRM, Singapore already has the vehicle. We now need to add on what is tailored for us. We will look at the existing plans, what has worked and not worked and try to fill the gaps.” While drafting the Singapore Clause, the team will assess the risks the maritime industry is facing and build it into its SWRM cover.