January 27th, 2025
Joshua Ooi never envisioned a career for himself in surety. Little did he know, his personal skills and quiet confidence would earn him a knack for this specialized, fast-moving field. Here, he speaks on his many responsibilities working as a Commercial Underwriter for the ASEAN region at Allianz Trade in Singapore.
What brought you to Allianz Trade?
It wasn’t a linear journey! People are surprised to learn that I actually studied political science and psychology at the University of Melbourne. I planned to return to Australia to study for my Master’s degree, but while completing my national service requirement back home in Singapore, I met my now-wife. That’s when I decided to settle down here and pursue a career in finance.
I first started as a loan analyst before moving over to credit risk monitoring. I later transferred to Hong Kong as a credit risk manager, then back to Singapore when our child was about to enter school. Because the banking market wasn’t hiring at the time, I made the transition to trade credit insurance, then to trade credit brokering. After two years, I decided this path wasn’t for me and started looking for other opportunities. One presented itself with Allianz Trade, in surety.
I was most experienced in underwriting for banks and trade credit insurance so I thought it would be interesting to specialize in surety. I also saw lots of possibilities for growth at Allianz Trade in Singapore – particularly because I was joining a team of just two: me and my boss, Daniel Koepfer.
What are your responsibilities as a Commercial Underwriter in surety?
Because we’re a small team servicing the entire ASEAN region, which covers 10 countries in Southeast Asia including Korea and Japan, my responsibilities are quite comprehensive. They include underwriting, business development of markets we work within, liaising with clients and managing their requests, to issuing, drafting and securing bonds – even administrative tasks. Our office is very busy! But it’s rare to have this level of visibility and involvement in each step of the process.
It’s been interesting to see how in every country, the industries that require surety are different. A lot of research goes into crafting our approach for each market and understanding the cultural differences of doing business in a given context.
What challenges have you encountered along the way?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced has been developing and meeting the surety needs of other industries apart from construction, particularly in Singapore. The majority of surety requests are related to the construction industry both in Singapore and globally. However, we seek to maintain a diversified portfolio of industries whilst continuing to support the stronger construction players in the industry. While this has been an ongoing challenge, I find it enjoyable because it forces us to think creatively and find other industries where surety can be a solution.
I’ve also learned a lot about managing expectations and maintaining transparency with clients and brokers while keeping these relationships warm. Working in surety has taught me to look at a project and quickly make a judgement regarding our appetite and capacity for it. Succeeding in this field hinges on striking a balance between acting on these instincts and responding to the needs of our partners in ways that maintain trust.
What are your goals for the future?
Since joining two years ago, our Singapore Surety team has seen great success in growing our portfolio and achieving our business goals. This a pattern that I’m excited to see continue – last year we exceeded our targets by over 50%, and this year we achieved our annual budget in May.
I’m proud to have been a part of these accomplishments under Daniel’s leadership and look forward to welcoming a new colleague to our team in June. Looking ahead, I hope to see our team and business grow even more and would love to one day be in a position to lead it.
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Our expertise and commitment
Allianz Trade is the global leader in trade credit insurance and credit management, offering tailored solutions to mitigate the risks associated with bad debt, thereby ensuring the financial stability of businesses. Our products and services help companies with risk management, cash flow management, accounts receivables protection, Surety bonds, business fraud Insurance, debt collection processes and e-commerce credit insurance ensuring the financial resilience for our client’s businesses. Our expertise in risk mitigation and finance positions us as trusted advisors, enabling businesses aspiring for global success to expand into international markets with confidence.
Our business is built on supporting relationships between people and organizations, relationships that extend across frontiers of all kinds - geographical, financial, industrial, and more. We are constantly aware that our work has an impact on the communities we serve and that we have a duty to help and support others. At Allianz Trade, we are strongly committed to fairness for all without discrimination, among our own people and in our many relationships with those outside our business.