XL EYES ASIAN MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

XL Capital is currently putting together an analytic marketing team to be based in India looking broadly at the opportunities within Asia and India. Speaking at the Risk and Insurance Management Society meeting in San Diego, California, David Duclos, chief executive of XL's insurance operations told Insurance Day `Asia that XL was also evaluating licensing options in China. He said the group was determining whether it wanted to apply for a licence to write insurance and/or reinsurance in the country. He added: "The global programme business that we do and the fronting partners that we work with in territories where we're not licensed or represented gives us a first hand view of the opportunities that exist in countries in which we're currently not positioned. And in a lot of cases that's in those emerging markets." Duclos also said XL was continuing to make investments in supporting the Chinese as they learn the ways of the established insurance practices.