Welcome Address by Mr Scott Spaven, President of GIA, at the GIA 60th Anniversary Luncheon
Mr Marcus Lim, Assistant Managing Director of Banking & Insurance, MAS,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the General Insurance Association of Singapore, it’s my privilege to welcome you to a very special celebration this afternoon.
Sixty years ago in 1966, GIA was established. Our early years unfolded alongside Singapore’s own nation-building journey. As factories rose from the ground and businesses grew, our sector stood behind the risks, ensuring that our nation could build and move forward.
Rebuilding and enabling. Those have been our roles for six decades and remain both our reason and importantly, our responsibility. Every business and every home in this country needed to have had someone, at some point, willing to stand behind it. This was an insurer who said, “go ahead, we’ve got your back”.
Singapore today is among the world’s top insurance hubs and a leading maritime port globally. None of it would have been possible if individuals and businesses had to bear the weight of the losses alone. This is the role our sector has played for six decades. Not to prevent risks, but to make them bearable and make ambitions possible.
Fittingly for our business, the numbers tell an important story. Over the last 60 years, domestic premiums increased from just $45.9 million in 1965, to $6.5 billion in 2025. This reflects an average growth rate of over 8% annually. And our growth isn’t just limited to the domestic market. Today, our offshore premiums have grown to $17.7 billion, more than twice our domestic business. This reflects the depth of underwriting expertise and capacity that we’ve built and is a testament of our growth.
The true impact of insurance is seen when people need it most. In 2025, our sector paid $1.9 billion in domestic claims, and $6.8 billion in total. This is how we rebuild lives and property. These are not just numbers, they represent individuals and businesses supported, and lives and property rebuilt.
But an anniversary isn’t just only about looking back and celebrating what we’ve achieved, as we should. It’s also about asking ourselves, what’s next?
Unlike most other businesses, our product isn’t something customers can touch. Instead, we’re selling them a future action and an assurance that we’ll show up for them when they need us the most. What we sell therefore, is a deeply human transaction, sometimes bought in fear and used in crisis. Customers cannot verify in advance whether claims will be honoured. They have to trust in an insurer’s balance sheet as much as in its integrity.
Our value also begins long before a claim will ever be made. From the moment it is bought, insurance enables individuals and businesses to move forward. Construction insurance enables financing, giving businesses the means to build, expand, and turn plans into reality. And fire insurance enables Singaporeans to take HDB housing loans. In this way, we don’t just rebuild after something goes wrong. Our role begins from the start, enabling people and businesses to take that first step and seize opportunities.
That’s why I like to think of our business as one that’s, “for people, by people”.
Our underwriters assess risks every day for people they’ve never met, and every claim handled isn’t just a data point. It represents an individual’s or business’ bad day, a life disrupted, or someone’s loved one. Our job? To turn a stranger’s misfortune into a timely, fair, and human response.
And this is why GIA’s next chapters will be defined by our people. The Singapore College of Insurance leads cross-sector initiatives, and the Insurance Sector Talent Committee, where GIA serves with our sister associations. In addition to building a more connected talent and capability ecosystem with clearer entry pathways for new talents, SCI is also future-proofing the industry through its Insurance AI Centre of Excellence, to support practical adoption, workforce transformation, and responsible innovation.
After all, our business is built on customers trusting that our people will do right by them, and trust only exists when it’s earned, protected, and honoured. It’s earned through how fairly we assess claims, how clearly our agents explain fine print, and ultimately, how we treat customers when we don’t agree with them. We only get one chance, get it wrong and no marketing campaign can fix it.
So perhaps, that’s the real anniversary we’re commemorating today. Not just an anniversary, but a celebration of a shared track record of showing up for our customers for the past 60 years.
GIA was founded in an era where risks looked very different. While we’ll never be fully prepared for the risks we cannot predict and cannot see, GIA has always been stronger as one sector than its individual parts. That was true in 1966 and remains true today.
Looking ahead, Singapore’s continued transformation will create new opportunities for the sector to support national development. In his National Day Rally last month, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong spoke about plans for Singapore’s future. From the further development of Sentosa, to the merger of several southern islands, and the east coast long-island project, these projects remind us that as Singapore continues to transform, we’ll continue to provide the capacity and protection these developments need, to turn ambitions into reality.
That’s why we’ve not simply grown alongside Singapore. Instead, we’ve continually adapted to enable its growth. That is the resilience of our sector. We’ve responded not only when risks materialised, but also anticipated what came next, and helped Singapore prepare for it. For 60 years, we’ve risen to the challenge, and we’ll continue to do so for the next sixty."
GIA’s next 60 years will no doubt bring risks and uncertainties we cannot predict, but they also bring possibilities we’ve yet to imagine. And uncertainty has always been where our sector finds its purpose.
If our first 60 years have taught us anything, it’s that we are fortified by collective strength and unity. As a sector, we must continue to adapt, innovate, strengthen trust, and most importantly, we’ll continue to give people and businesses the confidence to take that next step.
While the risks of tomorrow may be different, our purpose remains the same. That is to enable lives and businesses and help rebuild lives and property. Today’s event is not just a celebration of how far we’ve come but also, where we’re going. So, here’s to writing the next chapters of GIA together, and beyond.
To everyone gathered here today, and especially to GIA’s Past Presidents, whose leadership helped shape who we are, thank you for celebrating this momentous milestone with us. Please join me in recognising their contributions and the lasting legacy they’ve built.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my privilege to welcome you to GIA’s 60th Anniversary Luncheon, and here’s to our next 60 years together. Thank you.
