A group of insurers, reinsurers, and cyber specialists will establish a dedicated data centre insurance facility in Singapore, pooling US$200 million in initial underwriting capacity to address what the market has identified as fragmented coverage for one of Asia’s fastest-growing risk classes.
The initiative was among several announcements made by Chee Hong Tat, Singapore’s Minister for National Development and Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), at the Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) on November 2. The conference drew approximately 4,300 delegates from more than 85 countries.
The facility’s participants include MSIG, Gallagher Re, SCOR, Samsung Re, and the Cybersecurity Association Singapore. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) formalising the collaboration is expected to be signed during the conference week. The facility is designed to cover construction, operational, supply-chain, design, and cyber risks.
Read more: Asia-Pacific data centre growth is outrunning its insurance cover
For brokers, the core problem is structural. Data centre coverage in Asia has typically been spread across separate programmes for buildings, equipment, and power infrastructure, according to Swiss Re Institute. That makes it difficult to structure comprehensive protection under a single placement and creates gaps where exposures overlap.
The new facility is intended to function as a one-stop placement hub, allowing regional project sponsors to access coverage through Singapore rather than assembling capacity from multiple markets.
Asia-Pacific data centre capacity is projected to increase from around 32 GW to 57 GW by 2030, according to JLL Research. Construction costs in the region rose an average of 10% year-on-year in 2025, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Data Centre Construction Cost Guide 2026, adding to the values at risk.
“These high-density computing clusters depend on massive grid capacity, specialised liquid cooling ecosystems, and complex supply chains. Operators face exposures across construction, property damage, cyber incidents, operational downtime and contractual obligations,” Chee said.
Chee also outlined the expansion of the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility (SEADRIF), which uses parametric triggers to deliver rapid payouts after natural disasters. In September, more than US$2 million was paid out following widespread flooding in Lao PDR that affected more than 370,000 people.
Two multi-year policies for the Philippines are now being finalised, providing more than US$55 million of coverage annually. The Philippines ranks first on the World Risk Index for disaster exposure, and GlobalData estimates the country’s catastrophe protection gap at about 98%, compared with a global average of 58%.
SEADRIF has been working with the Philippine Department of Finance (DOF), the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to strengthen the country’s disaster risk financing strategy. Benedikt Signer, executive director of SEADRIF Insurance Company, said the collaboration sets out “key activities to help accelerate the government’s efforts in this space.”
With US$13 million in paid-in capital, SEADRIF has mobilised more than US$230 million in private reinsurance capacity across its programmes.
“This illustrates how public resources, deployed through the right structures, can bring substantially greater private risk-bearing capacity alongside them,” Chee said.
Only about 10% of Asia-Pacific natural catastrophe economic losses were insured in 2025, according to Aon’s Climate and Catastrophe Insight report. The region recorded at least US$76 billion in economic losses from natural disasters that year.
Read more: Philippines locks in disaster risk deal as domestic catastrophe pool struggles for traction
Behind these capacity-building efforts is a broader push to direct more insurer capital toward infrastructure. Insurers in Asia-Pacific hold more than US$10 trillion in investable assets, according to the IAIS Global Insurance Market Report 2025, but infrastructure allocations have historically sat at around 1% to 2%.
MAS intends to propose three changes to its Risk-Based Capital 2 (RBC 2) framework. The first would broaden the scope of infrastructure debt eligible for lower capital charges. The second would recognise additional risk-mitigating features that could further reduce requirements. The third would make capital charges for rated securitisations more risk-sensitive, with lower charges for instruments that meet criteria for simplicity, transparency, and standardisation.
ASEAN requires more than US$200 billion in infrastructure investments annually, according to the Asian Development Bank. Lower capital charges could, over time, translate into greater underwriting appetite for infrastructure-related risks, expanding the pool of available capacity for brokers.
The public consultation was set to begin on November 2.
MAS will set aside S$30 million under the Financial Sector Development Fund to support insurers in building infrastructure investment capabilities in Singapore. The funding can cover costs related to assembling dedicated investment teams and engaging professional services.
Singapore’s insurance sector recorded close to S$90 billion in total premiums across life, general insurance, and reinsurance in 2025. Insurance broking revenues reached S$1.1 billion, having grown more than 10% annually over the past five years. The city-state is home to about 44,000 insurance workers and the region’s largest concentration of global reinsurers and corporate captives.
