International risk carriers have played only a minor role in the Middle East’s personal accident and health insurance markets for the past several years. That’s because local insurers have matured. Now, with their reinsurers, they are able comfortably to absorb the vast majority of the risks arising in the region. And while circumstances are likely to stay broadly the same for the majority of risks in the near-term future, the need to look outwards is again beginning to grow, says BMS's Ms Lucy Carter.