Political Risk Insurance Guide: A Practitioner’s Guide

The risk that an international business will encounter some form of loss due to political risks is high, particularly if it trades or invests in the developing world. That is not to say that there is no political risk implied when doing business in developed countries. There is no country on earth where political risks do not exist. For example, as a U.S. investor, you might think that Mozambique is a risky place to invest. Perhaps it is. But could the U.S. also be a risky place to invest? Just ask Iranian investors how accessible the financial assets they placed in the U.S. prior to 1979 have been. The U.S. Government froze Iranian assets in the U.S. not long after the Shah fell from power. Let's say you have invested in a mine in Canada. Your operation is going smoothly for several years. Then, the Canadian economy starts to go sour and an election year approaches. As the owner of the mine, you decide you need to lay off a substantial portion of your workforce in order to remain viable. Your mine just happens to be in an important province which the current ruling party believes it must win in order to win the national election. Learning of your plans to lay off workers, the government nationalizes your mine to prevent you from laying off the workers, removing the possible negative impact such an action could have on its ability to carry the province in the election. You get a sense now of how a seemingly benign action on the part of an investor can lead to a politically risky scenario. The risks are real.

The Political Risk Insurance (PRI) Guide gives an insider's perspective on what the PRI industry is all about - how it operates, how underwriters think, and how risk analysis is done. As the only one of its kind book, the PRI Guide gives you everything you need to know to think as a PRI underwriter actually thinks, and gain insight into the analysis of trade, investment, and lending risks internationally from an insurance perspective. After reading this easily digestible book, you will know more than 99% of your peers about PRI.