China Taiping Insurance is quitting the New Zealand market, saying its reinsurer has declined to renew cover.

NZ-based COO Peter Lam told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company, an arm of Hong Kong insurer China Taiping, will put its book into run-off and then close the New Zealand business.

The company employs 16 staff and wrote most of its $NZ13 million ($10 million) of premium in Auckland and other parts of the North Island.

Mr Lam says the company’s reinsurer, a French company which he declined to name, withdrew from the market following the Canterbury earthquakes.

The French government-owned reinsurer CCR announced in November that it would no longer provide cover in New Zealand, Australia or Thailand.

“I am very disappointed because it is not our decision resulting from our operations,” Mr Lam said. “We are doing very well.”

China Taiping has operated in New Zealand for 16 years, but said in June that it would not write new business in the Canterbury region or Wellington as its underwriting limits had been tightened at the request of its reinsurers.