日本保赔协会在继去年小有盈余之后，正寻求提高自身财务实力的方法。

总部位于东京的日本协会，相比其许多国际竞争对手而言，正经历更为困难的时期，其已经增加巨灾储备金3.1亿日元(390万美元)。正在制定中的新财务策略旨在确保储备金至少相当于当年的净保费收入，并在7月的年会上告知会员。

目前为BBB等级的日本协会正修改计划，以期通过次级贷款筹集80亿日元（1.01亿美元）资金。在致会员的一份通函中，协会也指出，加强防损措施的同时，还要关注投保船舶资质，这样才能提高其承保业绩。日本协会称，其新财务策略将比之前的5年计划方案”更为新颖和实际” 。

去年，协会承保了2450艘远洋船，总吨超过8700万，与沿海及租赁船舶一样，吨位和净保费都有所下降。已经支付的索赔上升了，但协会有能力降低那些未决索赔案件的支付。因日元走强，协会亦受到外汇影响。法律规定限制日本协会投资A级或以上等级政府或企业债券，因此，日本协会被置身于产权投资市场之外，而产权投资市场通常可以给其他国际保赔协会保险人获得相对更高的收益。日本的会计师事务所将日本协会与西方竞争对手进行了直接的比较，发现日本协会确实存在问题，但是也要看数据怎么对比，日本会总自由储备金约1.5亿美元。

低迷的贸易环境及昂贵的人员伤亡索赔导致日本协会去年向会员发出预警，可能要筹集现金，追加2010保险年度30%的保费。但最终仅追缴了10%的额外保费，在2012年2月续保时，远洋船舶保费普调亦只有3%的小幅增长。

JIM MULRENAN 伦敦
2012年6月20日

Japan Club in modest surplus through 2011

The Japan Ship Owners’ Mutual Protection & Indemnity Association is to review ways of increasing its financial strength after ringing up a modest surplus through last year.

The Tokyo-based club, which is experiencing tougher times than many of its international rivals, logged an increase of ¥310m ($3.9m) in its catastrophe reserve. A new financial strategy aimed at ensuring reserves are equal to at least a year’s net premium income is being developed to be put to members at the annual meeting in July.

The “BBB” -rated club is also reviving a plan to raise up to ¥8bn ($101m) through a subordinated loan. In a circular to members, the club is also indicating it aims to improve its underwriting performance by focussing on the quality of insured vessels while stepping up loss-prevention activities. The Japan Club says its new financial strategy will be “more streamlined and practical” than previous initiatives based on five-year plans.

The club, which insures 2,450 oceangoing vessels of more than 87 million gt, as well as coastal and chartered vessels, saw its tonnage and net premiums fall last year. Claims paid increased but the club was able to reduce its provision for outstanding claims. The club has also been affected by foreign-exchange issues arising from the strong yen. Statutory requirements restrict the Japan Club to investing in “A” or higher rated government or corporate bonds, so it is locked out of the equity markets that usually deliver a higher return to other International Group P&I insurers. Japanese accountancy conventions make direct comparisons with Western rivals problematic but depending on how the figures are reworked, the overall free reserve of the Japan Club is around the $150m mark.

The difficult trading environment and a run of expensive casualties led to the Japan Club warning members last year that there could be a cash call of as much as 30% on the 2010 policy year. But in the end it only required an extra 10% of premium and sought a relatively modest 3% general increase from oceangoing vessels at the February 2012 renewal.

BY JIM MULRENAN LONDON
20 June 2012