MILLEA MAY CONSOLIDATE NON-LIFE COS, CLAIMS REPORT

Japanese financial services holding company Millea is considering a consolidation of its domestic non-life insurance operations, reports Yomiuri Shimbun , citing unnamed sources. The holding company’s two main insurance subsidiaries are Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire and Nisshin Fire & Insurance. Under the plan, Tokio Marine would take control of major sales agencies dealing with institutional customers, while Nisshin Fire would take charge of smaller agencies dealing with personal lines. Millea plans to begin the transfer of agencies in September and expects the process to be completed within two or three years, the report said. Tokio Marine currently has 63,000 sales agencies, while Nisshin Fire has 17,000. As part of the plan, some agencies belonging to Tokio Marine will be merged to expand scale, while those remaining that have annual premium payments of less than ¥50m will be transferred to Nisshin Fire. The move to retain a company that employs small agencies is in contrast to moves at some other Japanese non-life companies, where smaller agencies have been told that they need to merge with other agencies to provide scale.