British insurer Royal & Sun Alliance aims to set up 11 more branches in China by 2011 to accelerate expansion, as it announced the setup of its wholly-owned subsidiary yesterday in Shanghai.

These offices will open in key cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou, Mike Jakeman, chief executive officer for RSA China, told a media briefing.

It has filed application to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to set up the Beijing branch and hopefully this can be done later this year, he said.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission last year approved RSA's plan to convert its 10-year-old Shanghai branch into a subsidiary, a status that allows it to transact its non-life insurance business nationwide.

RSA China achieved gross written premiums of 135 million yuan (US$19.7 million) year to date, up 42 percent from the same period a year earlier. In 2007, it wrote gross premiums of 191 million yuan.

Jakeman said RSA China's loss ratio, or the percentage of claims to earned premiums, was 41 percent in 2007, a relatively lower reading, but it will rise this year due to natural disasters.

(Shanghai Daily July 8, 2008)