How intangible assets are reshaping insurance risk, loss and exposure

When TMK set up at Lloyd’s Asia in Singapore two decades ago, Asia’s most valuable risks were easy to identify. They sat in ports, factories and offshore platforms, embedded in the physical infrastructure that powered regional growth and the insurance market had well-established frameworks to price them.

Today, many of the region’s largest exposures are just as real, but far less tangible.

Two decades ago, Lloyd’s Asia was primarily writing marine and energy for an economy built on manufacturing capacity, supply chains, and trade routes. By 2024, the platform was writing $1.1bn in annual premiums[1] across 47 classes of business, representing 18% growth compared to 2023. Lloyd’s growth in the region has followed one of the most significant economic transformations Asia has experienced in a generation, and what strikes me now is how often risk discussions focus on business interruption stemming from digital dependency rather than physical damage. That shift has happened quietly, but it’s profound.

A region re-priced

Over the past twenty years, the Asian Tiger economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have been fundamentally reshaped. GDP has multiplied. In several markets, financial services now sit at the centre of economic activity. Technology firms and fintechs process billions of dollars in daily transactions. The companies driving growth bear little resemblance to those of two decades ago, and neither do the risks they carry.

The physical economy has not disappeared. Thailand remains one of the world's largest automotive manufacturing hubs. Malaysia's electronics and semiconductor assembly sector employs hundreds of thousands. Around 22% of global maritime trade moves through the Strait of Malacca. Energy platforms still operate in the South China Sea. These assets still need physical cover, and insurers continue to price them with confidence.

But alongside that economy, a second one has grown, and it carries a fundamentally different risk profile.

Singapore's GDP has quadrupled over twenty years, with finance and insurance now accounting for around 13% of output. Hong Kong has deepened its role as a centre for financial services and cross-border capital flows. Across the region, enterprise value is increasingly concentrated not in buildings and machinery, but in data, software, intellectual property (IP), and digital infrastructure.

Globally, that shift has reached a tipping point. For the first time, the value of intangible assets exceeds that of tangible ones, at an estimated $79.4 trillion versus $68.8 trillion.[2] This represents one of the most significant reconfigurations of economic value in modern history, and it continues to accelerate across Asia.

From cargo to code

This transition matters because insurance frameworks designed to protect a physical economy do not automatically scale to an intangible one.

Asia’s most sophisticated companies now carry significant exposure across cyber and technology risk. Their digital assets underpin their competitive advantage, drive valuations, and connect firms directly to global markets. A fire in a factory is typically localised, visible, and bounded by physical damage. A cyber incident affecting a payments platform, cloud provider, or software dependency can trigger business interruption across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, with loss amplified by interconnection rather than proximity.  Digital assets are also more complex to model, more interconnected, and more capable of concentrating loss than traditional risk frameworks were built to account for.

The risk is often not that these exposures go unnoticed, but that they are underestimated. Too often, cyber, and intangible risks are treated as incremental additions rather than as factors that can fundamentally reshape loss severity, correlation, and recovery.

The broader picture reinforces the point: Insurance penetration across ASEAN stands at around 3.2% of GDP against a global average of 7%.[3]  The gap between those figures reflects both under-penetration and opportunity - an addressable market increasingly shaped by intangible risk.

In cyber, that shift is already visible. Demand from technology firms, fintechs and digital infrastructure operators across the region is growing rapidly. The exposure is real, and underwriting approaches are evolving to keep pace.

Crucially, the companies driving that demand are not small or emerging. They are the platforms, technology firms and infrastructure operators that now sit at the centre of global production and capital flows. Their balance sheets are built on software, data, and intellectual property. They understand their exposure to cyber-attack, IP theft, and technology failure, and they are increasingly seeking insurance solutions that reflect it.

The next chapter for Asia

The conditions shaping the next chapter are now coming into focus. Across the region, governments are treating intangible infrastructure with the same seriousness once reserved for physical assets.

Singapore's amended Cybersecurity Act[4] introduced board-level accountability for major operators. Hong Kong's Critical Infrastructure Ordinance, which came into force in January 2026,[5] establishes mandatory risk assessments and incident reporting requirements. These measures are creating urgency in boardrooms that might otherwise have deferred the difficult conversations, and that urgency is translating into demand for more sophisticated risk transfer.

Specialty insurance has always been at its strongest when pricing complexity that others find difficult. Cyber and technology risks sitting on APAC balance sheets demand exactly that: deep underwriting judgment, a genuine understanding of how intangible assets concentrate exposure, and the capacity to build solutions at the scale demanded by the region's most advanced companies. That requires looking beyond tangible and intangible risks in isolation, and towards the points at which they interact, including scenarios where a cyber attack can cause physical damage to property and assets.

Among the range of emerging exposures, cyber stands out, not because it is new, but because preparedness continues to lag complexity. Awareness has grown, but resilience has not always kept pace with the sophistication of threats, a gap that will define the next phase of risk management in the region.

Twenty years ago, TMK opened in Singapore to price the risks of a physical economy. That economy has not disappeared, but the balance sheets of Asia’s most sophisticated companies have transformed. The fastest-growing assets on Asia’s balance sheets are intangible. Increasingly, so are the risks. A market built to price physical exposure is now doing something harder: building the tools, judgement and capacity to price what cannot always be seen.

[1] https://assets.lloyds.com/media-651c0e64-c1d0-4f97-90f7-883c69fe2ef2/bad9975d-b999-4a31-b279-e5f65cceb2c1/Lloyd's%20Asia%20Infographic%202025.pdf

[2] https://brandirectory.com/reports/global-intangible-finance-tracker-gift

[3] https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2026/1/apac-2026-insurance-outlook-insurers-face-geopolitical-catastrophe-ai-risks-96218077

[4] https://www.csa.gov.sg/legislation/cybersecurity-act/

[5] https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202506/27/P2025062700238.htm