Pressure mounts on Lloyd's as XL and Chubb withdraw.
Two major insurers are pulling out of Burma three weeks after the Burma Campaign UK published its report, Insuring Repression, highlighting how insurance companies have facilitated the flow of billions of dollars to the Burmese regime.
The companies, XL and Chubb, separately announced the withdrawals in statements to the campaign.
XL Capital stated that the company now has a policy that it will no longer “seek to insure Burmese companies or operations of companies in Burma". XL Capital owns one of the 12 largest reinsurers in the world, XL Re, and a large Lloyd’s of London syndicate, XL London Market, which has in the past insured a Burmese regime owned airline.
Chubb Corporation told the campaign that after conducting an internal review it now “bars its member companies from maintaining an office in Burma, from directly writing insurance in Burma or providing insurance into Burma from outside the country”. Chubb is one of the biggest insurers in the US.
Maung Maung, general secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions Burma, said: “Insurance companies are facilitating trade and investment in Burma, filling the pockets of the generals and helping keep them in power. We welcome the news that XL and Chubb have pulled out, and will no longer help to fund the regime, but we strongly condemn all insurers that remain involved in our military junta run country. They help keep the generals in power, and condemn Burma’s 50 million people to lives of poverty and fear. There is no excuse for the likes of Lloyd’s of London being involved, they are helping to fund a brutal dictatorship."
Lloyd’s of London recently said: "A very small amount of reinsurance is written at Lloyd’s in Burmese shipping and aviation. We are unaware of any businesses at Lloyd’s defying international sanctions. If we discovered any underwriters breaching sanctions we would take action immediately.”
