For Can Sigorta, reinsurance is not simply a technical mechanism behind an insurance policy. It forms part of the long-term financial structure through which risks written in North Cyprus can be assessed, retained and shared within a broader reinsurance framework.
Can Sigorta has worked with Milli Reasürans for approximately 20 years, establishing a relationship that has developed alongside the company's wider institutional history.
Founded in 1929 by Türkiye İş Bankası, Milli Re is Türkiye's first private reinsurance company and one of the country's longest-established institutions in the insurance sector.
Over almost a century, Milli Re has played an important role in the development of the Turkish insurance market while progressively expanding its activities into international reinsurance markets.
From North Cyprus to the International Reinsurance Market
The importance of reinsurance becomes particularly clear in relatively concentrated insurance markets such as North Cyprus.
A large commercial property, hotel, industrial facility, engineering project or portfolio of insured properties can represent a level of exposure that should not necessarily remain entirely within the balance sheet of a single local insurer.
Through reinsurance arrangements, portions of these risks may be shared across broader pools of insurance and reinsurance capital.
Can Sigorta's long-standing relationship with Milli Re forms part of this structure.
Milli Re itself expressly provides treaty and facultative reinsurance capacity to insurance companies operating in both Türkiye and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This places the relationship within a wider institutional framework in which risks originating in North Cyprus can form part of a broader reinsurance system rather than being considered solely within the capacity of the local market.
Milli Re and the London Reinsurance Market
One of the most significant aspects of Milli Re's international development has been its relationship with the established global reinsurance markets, including London.
Milli Re began taking a more active role in international reinsurance markets from 2006 onwards as part of a strategy to diversify its portfolio and develop sustainable international business.
Its published annual reports show that, from 2007, the company began writing business involving selected participants in Continental European markets and the Lloyd's market.
Milli Re has participated in conventional reinsurance contracts of leading global reinsurers and has also provided capacity to selected Lloyd's syndicates.
This is an important distinction.
London is one of the principal centres of the global insurance and reinsurance industry. Lloyd's is not a single insurance company, but a specialist marketplace through which syndicates and underwriting organisations participate in complex and internationally distributed risks.
Milli Re's participation in this market demonstrates that its international reinsurance activities extend well beyond Türkiye and the immediate region.
For Can Sigorta, the significance of this connection is institutional rather than promotional.
The reinsurance chain linking a North Cyprus insurer to a major regional reinsurer such as Milli Re can ultimately sit within a much wider network of international reinsurers, retrocessionaires and specialist market participants.
A Long-Standing Institutional Relationship
Can Sigorta has operated in North Cyprus since 1958.
Its approximately 20-year relationship with Milli Re therefore represents a distinct chapter within a much longer corporate history.
The value of a reinsurance relationship is not measured solely by the amount of capacity available.
Long-term reinsurance relationships are also associated with continuity in:
- risk assessment
- underwriting discipline
- portfolio management
- catastrophe exposure
- large-risk placement
- the structured distribution of insurance risk
For this reason, the relationship between Can Sigorta and Milli Re should be understood as more than an individual placement or a short-term commercial arrangement.
It forms part of the institutional infrastructure through which Can Sigorta has managed and shared risk over a period approaching two decades.
A Broader International Framework
Milli Re's international portfolio has historically included business from emerging markets, developed markets, its Singapore operations, international reinsurance pools and business originating in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This broader portfolio allows Milli Re to operate across different markets, classes of business and geographic regions.
The company's international development has included relationships with major global reinsurers, European market participants and the London insurance and reinsurance market.
As a result, the relationship between Can Sigorta and Milli Re can be viewed within a wider chain of risk transfer:
North Cyprus → Can Sigorta → Milli Re → wider international reinsurance markets.
This does not mean that every individual Can Sigorta policy or every insured risk is automatically transferred to the London market.
Reinsurance arrangements vary according to the class of business, treaty structure, facultative placement, retention levels and the characteristics of each risk.
The significance lies in the institutional framework itself: Can Sigorta operates within a reinsurance structure capable of connecting locally written risks with substantially broader pools of international risk capital.
Since 1958. Approximately 20 Years with Milli Re.
Can Sigorta's history began in North Cyprus in 1958.
Its relationship with Milli Re adds another layer to that history: approximately 20 years of participation in a structured reinsurance relationship with an institution that has itself operated since 1929 and developed established links with international markets, including Lloyd's and the wider London reinsurance market.
The two histories represent different dimensions of the same structure.
One reflects long-term continuity in the North Cyprus insurance market.
The other reflects access to a broader system through which insurance risk can be distributed beyond the boundaries of a small domestic market.
Together, they form an important part of Can Sigorta's institutional and reinsurance history.