Read Full Magazine Here. Jino Azar has built his career through a steadily progressive path across specialty insurance, treaty reinsurance, and regional broking.
Today, as Manager – Treaty GCC at Nasco Re DIFC operating at the heart of the GCC reinsurance market, he plays an active role in supporting insurers across the region with treaty structuring, pricing strategy, and reinsurance placement.
From his early experience in Europe to his current role in Dubai, Azar has developed a practical understanding of both international reinsurance markets and local market dynamics. Based at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), he works closely with regional cedants and global reinsurers to help design sustainable reinsurance programs adapted to the evolving risk landscape of the GCC.
As the industry navigates climate risks, market cycles, and technological transformation, Azar shares his perspective on current trends, treaty strategy, client service, and talent development. In this interview with Business Life, he discusses the key forces shaping reinsurance in the region, the priorities for Nasco Re DIFC, and the challenges and opportunities ahead as the market looks toward 2026.
BL: Jino, your career trajectory has been remarkably international. How has your early experience in Paris and London shaped your leadership style today?
Jino Azar: My first steps in the industry were as a trainee in Advent London to gain exposure to political violence insurance and a few other specialty lines, then I moved to Partner Re for a short journey in the treaty business. This gave me, no doubt, a good technical foundation, notably for understanding risk and insurance products, as well as the selection and pricing process.
However, the solid reinsurance expertise and broking experience have been gained within Nasco Re. Reinsurance broking accelerates the learning of the entire insurance value chain, as we are constantly engaged with insurers, reinsurers, and regulators across different markets. This is a noble career where you get the chance to build multi-skills blending analytical and commercial capabilities.
This is an effective fast track to develop strong communication and relationship management skills.
It is incontestably a privilege to be part of the Nasco family, as this has definitely shaped my leadership and strategic abilities.
BL: As Manager of Treaty GCC at Nasco Re DIFC, what do you see as your core mission?
Jino Azar: Nasco Re has an efficient and successful treaty broking team and enjoys a strong presence across all GCC markets.
My role is to ensure that we deliver to all our clients in the region the best advice regarding treaty structure, reinsurance pricing, and placement strategy. We analyse portfolio performance and model exposures with the view of designing optimal and innovative structures. We work on aligning the views between cedants and their reinsurance partners. Nasco is always keen on balanced and sustainable reinsurance deals, securing the most adequate protection and the most competitive pricing.
We also provide, at the same time, every required service to support insurers in their development and give utmost attention to the client relationship, which remains at the heart of the reinsurance broking role.
BL: The GCC insurance market is evolving rapidly. What are the biggest trends you’re observing as we head into 2026?
Jino Azar: The GCC produces the largest proportion of premium income generated by the Mena region.
KSA, UAE & Bahrain Markets are highly concentrated. Insurers with low penetration continue to face intense competition and struggle to maintain profitability. It is expected that regulators will push for Consolidation.
The UAE flash floods of April 2024 demonstrate that climate risks cannot be ignored, and secondary perils carry significant exposure which warrants a pricing correction. Data quality and Cat risk governance would improve resilience.
Technology and Digital platforms now expanding represent a vulnerable area for cyber-attacks. Developing Cyber insurance in the GCC represents a huge opportunity. The same trend would apply to other specialty lines, which continue to show a significant potential for growth.
BL: How does Nasco Re DIFC differentiate itself from other reinsurance brokers in the region?
Jino Azar: Nasco proximity and regular engagement with clients build strong credibility and high visibility of our commitment. Being on the ground translates into becoming proactive advisors, deploying market intelligence to identify new opportunities. We can also anticipate stress areas with the view of accelerating problem solving.
Nasco historical presence in the GCC enables our Team to have a perfect understanding of the Market dynamics and the cultural challenges. This is key to maintain strong relations and enhance quality of service.
DIFC being a Reinsurance Market hub, gives us easy access to capacity providers, allowing us to discuss face to face opportunities and conclude viable deals.
Nasco delivers tailor made solutions adapted to the needs and ambitions of every client and avoids the « one size fits all” approach. Every book is scrutinised, analysed and modelled to design the optimal treaty structure.
BL: Treaty reinsurance is your specialty. Why is treaty so critical for the GCC market compared to facultative reinsurance?
Jino Azar: When meeting clients, everyone at Nasco is called to look at the broader picture of the relation and coordinate every reinsurance need whether treaty or Facultative across all lines of business.
Client Management role is being conducted at Nasco with a holistic approach aiming at securing the client satisfaction. In many instances, Nasco is being involved in product development, pricing indications and claim disputes! Every area will need to be addressed by selected experts within Nasco team, but still coordinated by one point of contact. This explains the need to build relationships with clients various business units and at all levels.
Treaty reinsurance offers the core capacity negotiated yearly and extended on automatic basis at portfolio level to reduce volatility and protect solvency. Risk transfer is guaranteed, without need for referral, as long as risk nature and perils insured fall within treaty scope. It is a wholesale platform driven by long term partnership with Reinsurers who underwrite not only the portfolio performance but also the teams managing the book reinsured.
Facultative Reinsurance offers flexibility to cover large or complex risks. Terms are being negotiated and capacity identified and secured at the level of a specific risk. Facultative is also required for risks / perils excluded under treaties. This needs a customised approach driven by a good understanding of risk and a constant monitoring of Market appetite. Given competition, facultative also implies speed in securing targeted capacity.
BL: What role does the DIFC play in enabling your work?
Jino Azar: DIFC is a growing Marketplace benefiting from international credibility owing to DFSA strong regulation. The increasing number of MGAs licensed at DIFC gives insurers access to capacity for specialty lines across the entire MEASA region .
DIFC is also a hub for talent and innovation, encouraging the development of non-conventional reinsurance solutions such as parametric and structured covers.
BL: Looking ahead to 2026, what are your top three strategic priorities for Nasco Re DIFC?
Jino Azar: Consolidating our existing relations is our first priority. We also look for expansion and find it crucial to continue enlarging our customer base in every territory notably in KSA and Qatar as far as GCC is concerned.
The second priority is the reinforcement of our team by adding new talents and building the next generation of professionals to ensure Nasco will continue cruising in this rapidly changing landscape.
The third priority is to further enhance automation in order to optimise operational cost
BL: How do you see technology reshaping reinsurance in the next five years?
Jino Azar: AI is being increasingly adopted to improve underwriting tools and pricing models. It is also being used to detect fraud and enhance claims handling.
Sensors and telematics are instrumental to collect data for Property risks and correlate premium level with driving behaviour for Motor insurance.
Satellite imaging is being used for crops insurance to conduct risk mapping and support claims adjustment.
The usual sophistication in risk management across the GCC will translate into insurers and reinsurers testing modern and innovative solutions supported by technology.
BL: The GCC is known for ambitious mega-projects. How does reinsurance support these developments?
Jino Azar: Mega projects will carry peak exposures warranting heavy facultative placement. These projects are expected to boost growth in the GCC by around USD 5 Bn of annual premiums with the largest proportion generated by Saudi projects. However, the bulk of this premium volume will go to the reinsurance markets.
The reliance on global reinsurers to offer reinsurance capacity may also translate into inheriting their expertise. This improves the technical capabilities of our primary insurers in handling complex risks.
BL: What is your leadership philosophy?
Jino Azar: At Nasco, the Executive Management team sets a clear direction as to the objectives to be reached and encourages the development of technical and commercial skills at all levels. We believe growing the business is about growing the people!
On the operational level, empowering people is the best way to drive performance in our industry.
Nasco Brokers are Ambassadors called to take every needed initiative to grow business and meet clients’ expectations. We want on board people who have ownership mindset and Entrepreneurial spirit. This is coupled with a culture of accountability governed by a framework of check points to ensure disciplined approach and strong compliance
BL: What role does sustainability play in your vision for reinsurance?
Jino Azar: Sustainability should be a key feature for reinsurers in scoring cedants and selecting level of capacity.
Reinsurers must reward climate resilience and social responsibility. Underwriters are increasingly privileging green infrastructure, renewable energy and similar risks by offering higher capacity and better terms.
BL: How do you see the role of regulation evolving in the GCC insurance sector?
Jino Azar: The basic role of regulators is to ensure all players comply with solvency rules with the view of protecting Policyholders. Reinsurance is another area to be vetted by regulators notably the credit rating of security panel.
Developing Market by encouraging consolidation, higher retention and local cession.
BL: What are the biggest challenges you face in treaty reinsurance today?
Jino Azar: Our typical challenge is to manage expectation of insurers on one side and Reinsurers on the other side. For 2026, insurers in the UAE tend to expect some sort of relaxation in structure and pricing at time underwriters will find it difficult to compromise on structure and retention levels and offer only limited concessions on pricing.
The abundant capacity now offered by MGAs will put pressure on primary rates at the time secondary perils need to be repriced in the way to attract higher deductible and increased premiums
At Nasco Re, we nurse long term relationships and target excellence when providing our advice and solutions.
BL: How do you foster innovation within your team?
Jino Azar: We do not look at brokers role as being restricted to securing needed placement! Our team should build innovative structures and efficient solutions.
They should coordinate with actuaries, analysts and modellers to produce a sensitivity test for every structure scenario under consideration. Such exercise should be coupled with the mapping of reinsurers appetite to ensure viability of the solution.
Nasco Treaty Team is well trained to understand client requirements and coached to conduct this broking exercise successfully.
Our performance reviews ensure innovation and differentiation are well measured and rewarded.
BL: What role does cultural fluency play in your work?
Jino Azar: Understanding social dynamics and speaking Arabic could pave the way for more openness from few clients. Translating underwriters arguments and expectations in smoother words tend to lead to avoiding misunderstanding, supporting negotiation and accelerating deals.
Quality solutions are always needed to score but should be associated with a trusted communication built around solid and loyal relations. It is critical to show humility and avoid pressing clients.
Cultural fluency in GCC treaty reinsurance
BL: How important is cultural fluency in navigating GCC treaty reinsurance markets?
Jino Azar: Given our cultural fluency, we are being called to bridge whenever needed the global reinsurers position with the insurer’s expectations. In order to make proposals viable, we need to demonstrate an understanding for local constraints and an alignment with Market and Company’s own vision.
Expanding GCC portfolio strategy
BL: What is the core focus of your GCC portfolio strategy today?
Jino Azar: Nasco Re DIFC and Nasco Re Saudi offer proximity to all clients across the GCC.
Cultivating talents is our number one priority with view of dedicating an account manager for every client and providing expertise and support for specialty and complex risks.
Our key objective is to consolidate and strengthen existing relationships by offering regular services covering market outlook, terms benchmarking, cat modelling and analytics review.
Onboarding new clients and cross selling treaty / facultative remain a core and strategic goal to achieve growth.
Our automated facultative placement platform is providing our clients with access to reinsurance capacity extended to Nasco by First class reinsurers.
Operational efficiency and excellence are also being nursed to ensure post placement process remains free of hustle and recovery of losses made as prompt as possible.
Data-driven underwriting partnership
BL: How are you using data and analytics to enhance treaty underwriting in the GCC?
Jino Azar: With analytics, insurers can manage segmentation of portfolio and introduce dynamic pricing linked to exposure and claims pattern. Accumulation is also monitored to identify aggregates per geographical zone for each cat peril and model same thus containing potential concentration.
This moves insurers away from arbitrary and gut feeling approach to informed selection and disciplined pricing with automated quality control of mix and price per segment.
Client service philosophy in DIFC
BL: What defines your client service philosophy in the DIFC?
Jino Azar: When we promise, we go out of our way to deliver and keep client own interest above any other consideration. Full transparency should govern every communication with both clients and reinsurers. We provide expert and tailor-made solutions supported by actuarial and analytics. We anticipate Market trends and shift to optimise value rendered.
Our clients are Nasco partners and we remain strongly committed to secure to them the best terms and the finest reinsurance panel.
Building regional talent pipelines
BL: How are you developing the next generation of treaty specialists in the region?
Jino Azar: Nasco has always invested in talents and sponsored insurance certifications and various training programs across all lines. Our brokers have a solid and high technical expertise together with strong commercial ability. They enjoy a good entrepreneurial spirit and an excellent capacity of persuasion. Nasco trains brokers to be fine diplomats maintaining our extensive network of Clients, thanks to the support of our actuaries, analysts, data scientists and modellers.
Nasco is building today the team of young professionals and growing the Leaders who can drive Nasco to the next level in the years ahead.
Achieving disciplined profitable growth
BL: How do you define profitable growth in the GCC insurance and reinsurance markets?
Jino Azar: A balanced premium growth supported by thorough selection and disciplined underwriting should aim at maintaining the margins needed to secure profitability. Privileging lines of business not under pricing pressure and maintaining an optimal mix by class of business should be encouraged.
A solid reinsurance structure offering adequate protection against unusual frequency and high severity should also be in force to stabilize results.
Managing volatility for sustainable margins
BL: How do you approach volatility management in order to sustain margins?
Jino Azar: Volatility in claims may be attributed to severe Nat cat events, escalation in frequency, inflation, high-risk exposures, and emerging lines of business. Volatility could impact capital and solvency, in addition to risk appetite and pricing stability.
Reinsurance is a security valve and a shock absorber to guard insurers against claims volatility. Managing volatility is incontestably a priority for insurers, who may strengthen this approach by using modeling tools and predictive analytics.
Market softening in European and MENA property catastrophe reinsurance
BL: What early signs of market softening are you observing in European and MENA property catastrophe reinsurance?
Jino Azar: The key reinsurance players have been producing excellent results with impressive ROE, exceeding cost of capital. The capital dedicated to the industry continues to grow, which translates into an abundant offer of reinsurance capacity. We should, therefore, be witnessing a softening trend at global level, and pricing pressure is expected mainly on programs with clean loss record and top layers. However, underwriters will not compromise underwriting discipline and structural improvements introduced in recent years.
The Mena region will also benefit from the same trend, with few limitations maintained in the UAE given the cat losses sustained in April 2024.
Strategy to capitalize on softening without eroding discipline
BL: How do you advise clients to navigate softening markets strategically?
Jino Azar: The relation with reinsurers being a partnership on the long term, sustainability of deals secured should be regarded as extremely important when seeking more favourable terms and cheaper pricing.
Opportunistic and short-term premium saving might hide turbulence ahead with usual leading markets among big boys when the cycle hardens.
Strategically, softness is an opportunity to buy more cover at optimised cost and consolidate resilience without upsetting the relation with reinsurance partners.
Geopolitical risk and MENA wars impact
BL: How are ongoing conflicts in the MENA region impacting your business and your clients?
Jino Azar: Political tension and social unrest in many countries across the Mena region are putting pressure on economic stability and growth, and impacting the insurance and reinsurance industry.
Exposure to SRCC, PV, and Marine war risks is materially increasing and would require a strict monitoring of accumulation for the sake of purchasing adequate reinsurance protection. Compliance with sanctions needs also to be handled carefully.
Parametric tools for Gulf climate exposures
BL: How are parametric solutions being applied to climate-related risks in the Gulf?
Jino Azar: With the availability of conventional reinsurance solutions, parametric options are not meant to replace the traditional reinsurance schemes but complement the same. Nasco Re is offering parametric covers as a relief to alleviate exposure following an increase in attachment points in respect of Nat Cat XL programs. The key advantage of this structure is that indemnity is being paid very fast without the need to wait for loss adjustment. The choice of trigger implies a balance between affordability of XL cost and adequacy of protection.
Pre-renewal playbook for 2026
BL: What does your pre-renewal playbook for 2026 look like?
Jino Azar: In respect of existing portfolio due for renewal, Nasco core presentation and submission to Market is ready any time throughout the year, thanks to the comprehensive data maintained in our own books. This will be compared with the client’s presentation to ensure full data credibility and reassess limits and capacity in force based on our modelling exercise.
The review of Market appetite and capacity available is again an open discussion with our partners, conducted every time Nasco Management and broking team meet with Reinsurers’ representatives during their regular visits to Markets or at the occasion of conferences. Nasco puts also strong emphasis on identifying newcomers interested in writing business from the region, for sake of diversifying the panel as and when deemed necessary.
Our role is to describe in the renewal pack historical results and demonstrate potential performance based on shifts in treaty structure, Uwing strategy, and pricing movement. We should also bear in mind treaty Uwing focuses on Uwing people, and any change in key positions of our Reassured should be reported to reinsurers. It is also important to anticipate reinsurers’ queries so we may respond timely, facilitate smooth negotiation, and conclude fair and competitive deals.
Building trust with international markets
BL: How do you build and sustain trust with international reinsurance markets?
Jino Azar: Nasco coordinates with most reinsurers operating in the region and maintains regular meetings with every underwriter to share updates on markets and cedants performance.
This communication is being conducted with utmost transparency, as we convey full picture and factual stories, thus making expectations very realistic with little room for deviation and surprises.
Any matter or issue to be resolved with clients, we step in and deliver timely and fair solutions.
The loyalty we have always shown towards top global reinsurers and preferred regional players confirm Nasco privileges long-term partnership and prioritise same upon efficiency in transactional placement.
Looking ahead to 2026
BL: What are your top three commitments to clients as you look ahead to 2026?
Jino Azar: Talent is at the heart of Nasco success. Our priority is to retain ressources and consolidate our Expert team in order for our client Management Team to be strongly empowered and highly responsive to clients demand across the region. Our focus on modelling and analytics will be further enhanced to accelerate promotion of non conventional solutions.
Nasco will continue privileging regional securities and will contribute actively to their growth across Mena and Africa. We believe supporting local reinsurers is instrumental to enhance their capabilities. The key advantage on this front would be the stability and flexibility of support expected, given reinsurers strong commitment to the region.
Nasco Re is keen on proximity to clients. In the GCC, our presence in the UAE and Saudi have shaped our presence in both Markets and should permit continued growth. We are now open to consolidate further this presence by developing centres of excellence for few specialty lines in the same markets, thus securing better alignment of interests with Primary insurers.
We are also open to establish presence in other GCC Markets.
Conclusion
As our conversation drew to a close, it was clear that Jino Azar is not only navigating the complexities of today’s reinsurance market but actively shaping its future. His blend of technical expertise, cultural fluency, and strategic foresight makes him a leader to watch.
In an industry defined by uncertainty, Azar’s message is one of resilience and discipline: growth must be profitable, innovation must be practical, and relationships must be nurtured with care. For the GCC and beyond, his vision offers both stability and ambition—a rare combination in a world of shifting risks.
