Political risk
Zurich Emerging Markets Solutions (ZEMS) offers investors, financial institutions, project developers and contractors protection from losses associated with political events in emerging markets. Intimately familiar with the range of risks facing emerging markets investors, ZEMS has adopted a holistic approach to protect our customers’ trade and project financing, equity investments and capital markets transactions.
Our excellent industry reputation enables us to collaborate with a host of organisations including private insurers, public agencies and international banks to structure deals in all industry sectors worldwide. Our goal is to provide the best solutions and address the needs of our most important partner – our customers.
With our ratings, Zurich can offer the capacity and terms emerging markets investors require. Cover against expropriation, political violence, currency inconvertibility and other perils are customised to fit the requirements of each transaction. To date, ZEMS has written policies covering risks in 70 developing countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Our success is largely attributed to our team of experienced professionals, flexible and creative underwriting solutions, and responsive service to customers.
Partnered with Zurich Global Corporate UK, ZEMS makes up the global political unit of the Zurich Financial Services group. Offices are located in London, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Barcelona.
Capacity
We offer capacity up to US$80 million per transaction
Coverage highlights
- Policy terms up to 15 years;
- Indemnities from 90% to 100%
Product offerings
- Expropriation
Expropriation coverage protects investments against acts by the government of the foreign country in which you are doing business. These acts include confiscation, expropriation, nationalisation, and other acts that deprive investors of fundamental rights to their investment, or cause overseas borrowers to default on their loans.
Our policy also protects against ‘creeping expropriation’, a series of acts that when taken together over a period of time have an expropriatory effect. This coverage can also be expanded to include such risks as repudiation of a concession and the failure of a sovereign entity to honour an arbitration award issued against it.
- Political violence
Political violence coverage provides replacement cost compensation when politically motivated violence damages physical assets or causes an interruption of operations. Our policy provides compensation for damage or destruction of a project's assets or the loss of income for a one-year period. For loans, compensation is based on the amount in default as a result of political violence or business interruption.
Political events can include:
- War
- Revolution
- Insurrection
- Civil unrest
- Terrorism
- Sabotage
- Currency inconvertibility
Currency inconvertibility coverage protects against delays that affect the ability to convert local currency into hard currency and to repatriate converted currency.
- Additional coverages
Our products are available for equity, debt and emerging markets bond issues. In addition, we also offer coverage for non-honouring of sovereign guarantees, wrongful calling of contractor bonds, mobile assets, leasing, and other cross-border emerging market exposures.
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