First Japanese Insurance Company to Establish a Commercial Reinsurance Operation in a Euro Zone Country - Tánaiste

Mary Harney, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment today (Tuesday, 9th February, 1998) announced that the Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Company of Japan, is to establish a strategic commercial reinsurance operation at the IFSC creating 15 jobs, following her successful 10 day trade and investment mission to Asia/Pacific.

The company, which is a member of the prominent Sumitomo group of Japan, has over 10,000 employees worldwide and is one of the top 5 insurance companies in Japan and the 16th largest in the world. The company's financial surplus at the end of the last fiscal year was US$ 2 billion with issued shared capital of US$ 454 million.

The Tánaiste said that "this investment is significant in that the company is the first Japanese insurance company to establish a standalone commercial reinsurance operation in a Euro zone country. The operation will create 15 high quality financial services jobs and the prestige of the Sumitomo name may encourage other major Japanese companies in the insurance sector to establish similar type operations at the IFSC".

The main objective of the IFSC subsidiary is to act as a strategic office for the development of insurance products to cover the market for alternative risk insurance that is rapidly expanding as a consequence of deregulation that is taking place in the Japanese Insurance sector. In addition, through the establishment of an operation in Dublin, Sumitomo Marine & Fire is positioning itself to take advantage of the growing opportunities in the European reinsurance market that have been created as a result of the recent introduction of the Euro.

The company stated that it choose Dublin because of the favourable regulatory, administrative and legal framework that exists within the IFSC. In addition, the IFSC's reputation as one of the most innovative and advanced international centres for reinsurance product development will enable the company to strengthen its own product development capabilities for both the Japanese and European markets.

The IFSC subsidiary will be capitalised at Euro 7,500,000 and will commence operation in April of this year.