New Zealand ranks 49th on the National Cyber Security Index - the lowest of all Five Eyes partners - while losing more than $1.6 billion annually to cybercrime and recording cyber incidents at 59% of large businesses in the past year, according to papers released in February by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The government's proposed mandatory incident reporting requirements for approximately 200 significant entities across seven essential services, with a 72-hour reporting window, are still in consultation following an April 2026 close date. That is the market Fraser Walker (pictured) inherits as Emergence Insurance has promoted him to country head, New Zealand - the operation he joined as its first New Zealand hire three years ago.
The appointment is analytically interesting for what Walker is not. His background is not in cyber. He spent more than 11 years at AIG primarily in marine underwriting, including seven years as New Zealand manager with solo underwriting authority for Papua New Guinea, before moving into broker education as head of risk and insurance at Construction Cost Consultants, where he hosted and presented educational sessions to broker networks across New Zealand. All three of his roles at Emergence have been distribution-facing: national business development manager from 2023, head of distribution New Zealand from 2025, and now country head. Emergence hired a distribution and education specialist to build the New Zealand market - a deliberate strategic choice for a market where broker understanding of cyber products precedes policyholder demand for them.
Duncan Morrison, cyber practice leader at Aon New Zealand, articulates the specific dynamic that makes broker education the right market-building mechanism in New Zealand. "Our regulators are nowhere near as punitive as the likes of Australia," he said, adding that mandating cyber coverage would be counterproductive - organisations focused only on obtaining a compliance certificate tend to buy the cheapest cover, access none of the benefits and remain exposed in practice. Value comes from embedding cover into incident response plans and activating the panel of specialist vendors that quality policies provide.
That observation explains the market gap Walker has been working to close. A market without punitive regulatory mandates requires brokers who understand why cyber cover matters rather than clients who buy it to satisfy a compliance requirement. The 49th NCSI ranking and the $1.6 billion annual loss figure suggest the underlying exposure is real; the 59% large-business incident rate suggests it is current. The gap is between exposure and informed coverage - which is a broker education problem before it is an underwriting problem.
Emergence launched Emergence NZ Limited with an Auckland office in 2023. When Walker joined that year, he described the market as underdeveloped. "Cyber insurance uptake is in its infancy in New Zealand but gaining momentum," he said. Three years later the operation has expanded its CPD-accredited broker education event, Cyber SyncUp, from three Australian locations in 2025 to Auckland in 2026, launched Tech Event Protection - a combined policy for IT service providers providing automatic contingent business interruption cover for cyber events or system failures affecting IT suppliers, system failure BI cover and optional D&O - and offers 24/7 in-house incident response capability alongside limits up to $20 million and 100% Lloyd's security.
Emergence also acquired the renewal rights to Blue Zebra's Australian cyber insurance portfolio in June 2026, giving the group's broader Australasian push its most recent portfolio expansion. Walker's elevation to country head from head of distribution follows that momentum - and reflects a market that has moved from infancy toward the point where distribution depth requires dedicated country-level leadership rather than a regional distribution role.
