The Impact of Translations

Are you certain you know what you have underwritten in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

The insurance industry has long sought contract certainty through the development of standard market wordings. The underwriting of large non-personal lines risks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no different as various well-known market wordings, particularly London market wordings, are commonly used.

The lack of local wordings can be understood as the KSA insurance market is still heavily reliant on foreign reinsurance support, and foreign reinsurers naturally wish to underwrite on the basis of familiar wordings. However, the question that must be asked is whether the use of international market wordings does in fact result in greater certainty in the context of KSA insurance, or is a new approach required? This article considers some of the issues that are relevant to this question and, although focused on KSA, it is of broader relevance as similar issues arise