A2ii Newsletter 10/20
Welcome! In this newsletter, we provide you with updates on the work of the Initiative, events and publications, and experiences and learning on inclusive insurance regulation and supervision across jurisdictions over the past month.
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The A2ii taking precautionary measures related to Covid-19 (coronavirus)
To safeguard the well-being of the A2ii staff and its partners, the A2ii is cancelling or postponing all physical events through the end of the year and exploring the use of virtual formats when possible. Events that are scheduled to take place from January 2021 onwards are currently under review. The A2ii will communicate any changes pertaining to our events on our website, social media channels and through our newsletter.
Covid-19 Insurance Supervisory Response Tracker
We have a special page on our website dedicated to tracking worldwide supervisory responses, insurance news and learning resources (such as webinars).
Feel free to share relevant news with us via secretariat@a2ii.org, by tagging Access to Insurance Initiative on LinkedIn or by mentioning us on Twitter.
A2ii-IAIS webinars
This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the A2ii and the IAIS have held two exceptional webinar series: the series on the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and implications for insurance supervisors (six webinars) and the pandemic risks webinar series (three webinars, two of which were open to all stakeholders).
Recordings of our public webinar presentations and recordings are available on our website under past events and on our YouTube channel.
Summaries of the webinars can be found on our blog.
IAIS-FSI-A2ii-AITRI-SARB virtual seminar on cybersecurity and data protection in the insurance sector | 25 September and 1 October
In partnership with the Financial Stability Institute (FSI), International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), ASEAN Insurance Training and Research Institute and the South African Reserve Bank, the A2ii jointly held a virtual seminar on cybersecurity and data protection in the insurance sector for insurance supervisors in Asia and Africa. The virtual seminar consisted of a combination of self-study via FSI Connect tutorials and pre-reading of FSI and A2ii papers and closed off with two live webinars on Webex.
Speakers from the IAIS, Bank of International Settlements and A2ii were joined by insurance supervisors who shared their approaches to cyber and data protection risk: The French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority, the Insurance Commission of the Philippines, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa.
On the Asia data protection session, colleagues from the Singaporean Personal Data Protection Commission and Infocomm Media Development Authority also took part in the question and answer session, reflecting the coordinated approach among the authorities. In total, about 90 participants completed the programme. It is evident that these topics continue to be top of mind for insurance supervisors. Discussions and concerns are diverse, ranging from considerations about legal frameworks and alignment with government policy, day-to-day supervisory practices, to implications of cybersecurity and data breach incidents, especially in light of fast-evolving technology.
MEFIN Public Private Dialogue on De-Risking Climate & Pandemic Disasters | 29 – 30 September
The Mutual Exchange Forum on Inclusive Insurance (MEFIN), a peer network of insurance regulatory authorities in Asia, held its ninth Public-Private Dialogue on De-Risking Climate and Pandemic Disasters. The dialogue was conducted through a series of 4 webinars over two days.
The A2ii contributed to the final session on the role of the insurance sector in managing disasters for the vulnerable. The A2ii used their preliminary results from their Covid-19 survey to outline the role that insurance supervisors have been playing during the pandemic to support and alleviate the impact of the crisis on vulnerable consumers. Due to the nature of the pandemic, the first half of the presentation focused on how regulators and supervisors have responded to the crisis to support existing policyholders and encourage innovation.
The second half of the presentation, however, drew from the A2ii’s pandemic risk series and pulled on the recommendations for how supervisors can bridge the protection gap for the uninsured and underserved. Recommendations include the need for supervisors to use the pandemic as an opportunity to raise the profile and benefits of insurance for the uninsured but also to be vigilant in these times to rising premiums and greater exclusions as a result of Covid-19. The A2ii was also joined by the Lorenzo Chan Jr, CEO and President of Pioneer Life Insurance in the Philippines. He reiterated the importance of digitalisation and innovation in insurance products for accessing the underserved and uninsured segments of society.
Inclusive Insurance Training programme - Advancing Financial Inclusion and Dealing with Climate Risks: Innovation and Proportionality in Insurance for the Caribbean and Asia | 28 September
In September the A2ii held its first virtual Inclusive Insurance Training for insurance supervisors with the Toronto Centre in Asia and the Caribbean. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the five-day in-person training has been converted into a virtual two-week half-day training schedule instead.
In Asia, the training which took place during the first half of September saw the partnership of the A2ii, IAIS and Toronto Centre with The ASEAN Insurance Trainig & Research Institute (AITRI). It consisted of twenty-five participants from twelve different countries across Asia, including Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, on 28 September the training program for insurance supervisors in the Caribbean region began. Similar to the Asian training this was jointly organised by A2ii, IAIS, the Toronto Centre and The Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC). Thirty-three participants from fourteen Caribbean countries are learning not only about inclusive insurance fundamentals but also have the chance to further deepen their knowledge on climate risk related topics, a focus that was included upon request of supervisors from the region.
Through the use of concrete case studies, participants can put into practice what they have learned during the presentations. Besides, over the nine days, the participants are developing their action plans to advance inclusive insurance market growth in their jurisdictions. Topics chosen by participants include the amendment of existing legislation to include inclusive insurance and parametric insurance; the development of measures to increase the awareness and understanding of insurance or finding ways to overcome the lack of relevant data. Following the program, a series of additional webinars will provide participants with further guidance and support for their action plan implementation efforts. Meanwhile, in Asia, the focus of action planning ranged from developing insurance awareness programmes in rural areas to changing legislation and regulation to include takaful insurance and developing an insurance product for dengue fever.
Following both programs, a series of additional webinars will provide participants with further guidance and support for their action plan implementation efforts. The agenda and other relevant documents are available on the event page.
Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab First International Workshop | 24 September
The iii-lab continued its online journey with the First International Workshop kicking off on 24 September when the four country teams (Argentina, India, Morocco, Rwanda) presented their countries and inclusive insurance sectors.
After the presentations, participants were split into smaller groups.
Session 2 on 1 October focused on leadership capacity development with participants peer-coaching on pre-defined leadership challenges.
The teams are eager to connect across countries and overcome the challenge of not being able to meet physically by mastering the online tools, bringing in motivation and commitment.
The International Workshop will continue over the next few weeks.
The Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE) of Costa Rica webinar on Sustainability and Inclusion: The Role Of Insurance | 23 September
The webinar was attended by 158 participants, including representatives of the industry and other Costa Rican regulators, as well as Latin American supervisors interested in the new regulation of inclusive insurance.
The A2ii presented on The importance of market conduct in inclusive insurance, followed by Alejandra Díaz (MiCRO) on Innovative Inclusive Insurance, and German Rodríguez Aguilar who offered an overview of the new Regulation on Inclusion and Access to Insurance (Agreement Sugese 11-20).
In his closing remarks, Tomas Soley, Superintendent of SUGESE, highlighted the participation of the A2ii in the regulation design process since its inception.
In addition to presenting the new regulation, the webinar gave participants a better understanding of the importance of maintaining a fair treatment of consumers - by providers and intermediaries- to maintain a resilient and robust insurance market, and offered various examples of successful inclusive insurance products in the region. The recording of the webinar can be accessed on the Sugese website here.
Risk-based capital regimes in emerging markets, A2ii-IAIS Webinar | 17 September
In September, the A2ii and IAIS organised a webinar on risk-based capital regimes in emerging markets.
Over 175 supervisors dialled in across the two sessions on the types of risk-based capital rules, the landscape of solvency regimes across three main regions mainly; Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and the general importance of adopting risk-based.
Participants heard from The World Bank’s Craig Thorburn, Eamon Kelly (consulting actuary) and supervisors, Elias Omondi from Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority and Chamarie Ekanayake from the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, who shared some of the challenges and lessons from implementing a risk-based capital regime in their jurisdictions. In Kenya, the solvency regulations were published in 2017 while in Sri Lanka, the risk-based capital framework was implemented back in 2016.
For a detailed overview of what came up during the webinar, please view the presentations available on our website here. This webinar was in anticipation of an A2ii Landscape paper on variations in solvency requirements across Sub-Sahara Africa, Asia and the Caribbean that will explore the topic in greater detail. Keep an eye on our website for the blog summarising the inputs from the webinar and the Landscape Paper that will be published.
The next webinar takes place on 22 October, and we will explore the topic of Formalisation and Licensing Regimes. It will broadly look at the various pathways to formalisation as well as how to incentivise commercial insurers to broaden their reach to underserved segments of the population. Participants will hear from Andrea Camargo (Director of Inspowering and Technical Expert at the A2ii) and The Centre for Financial Regulation & Inclusion (Cenfri) who will present their report on cell captives as a possible licensing solution. For more information and to register for the webinar, please visit our website here.
IAIS Implementation and Assessment Committee meeting | 16 September
The A2ii participated at the September IAIS IAC meeting which was this time mainly focused on the IAIS 2021 workplan and IAIS assessment activities under the Coordinated Implementation Framework.
Formalisation and Licensing Regimes – A2ii-IAIS webinar | 22 October
Informal approaches to risk management is a common coping mechanism especially for underserved and unserved segments of the population. In the absence of appropriate formal insurance coverage, various informal insurance-like models and schemes develop particularly in emerging and developing markets. However, such informal schemes can create uncertain risks such as those related to consumer protection and prudential risks among others. It also raises regulatory considerations for supervisors on how to create an enabling environment for informal providers. There is currently a limited range of licenses available to most regulators creating a situation whereby these entities operate without licenses or in a regulatory grey area.
This webinar will explore the topic of formalisation and its various pathways as well as how to incentivise commercial insurers to broaden their reach to underserved segments. Participants on the webinar will hear from Andrea Camargo (director of Inspowering and technical expert of the A2ii) and The Centre for Financial Regulation & Inclusion (Cenfri) who will present their report on cell captives as a possible licensing solution.
For more information and on how to register, please visit the event’s page here.
Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Dialogue on InsurTech: Catalysing Access to Financial Services following Covid-19 | 15 October
Technology is transforming global financial services. Across Africa, it has tremendous potential to address market challenges such as scale and customer experience. This offers opportunities for everyone, not least the consumer, as technology can help deepen access to financial services especially in light of the Covid- 19 crisis. The global pandemic has far-reaching consequences for the financial sector in general, including the insurance sector.
This event is hosted by the A2ii, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade (DIT), FSD Africa, the IAIS and the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub. Click here for more information.
Publications
Evolving insurance supervisory mandates in Sub Saharan Africa - implications for data practices
This paper is the first part of a project by the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), Cenfri together with a Steering Group comprising supervisors from seven jurisdictions namely Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Uganda and West and Central Africa (CIMA), chaired by South Africa. The project was initiated to support SSA insurance supervisors with obtaining the necessary information to conduct effective supervision and evaluate the insurance market, in line with ICP 9 while recognising that supervisory mandates are changing with the times.
The project aims to develop a consolidated reference list of KPIs covering the different ‘pillars’ of insurance supervisors’ objectives, namely a) prudential, b) market conduct, c) insurance market development (including inclusive insurance) and d) the contribution of the insurance sector to sustainable development.
You can download the report here.
For more resources on the topic visit the Monitoring and KPIs section of our Knowledge Hub.
Knowledge Hub Highlight
The role of insurance supervisors in climate risk insurance
Insurance supervisors have both good reason and the means to take active steps to promote resilience against climate risks and natural disasters, particularly amongst the low-income and underserved population. This is from the perspectives of carrying their mandates as local regulators, as well as stakeholders in achieving international goals relating to DRR, CCA and the SDGs. The topic of supervisory roles in this regard is not yet explored at depth. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the discourse by sharing ideas and stimulating discussions as to what the roles of supervisors can be.
In this paper, the term “climate risk” will encompass natural disasters that affect vulnerable households, entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, whether amplified or not by climate change.
This concept is closer to the term “physical climate risk” which is a component of the more
comprehensive concept of climate risk introduced by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, where climate risk is composed of physical risks, liability risks and transition risks.
Considering the above, climate risk insurance (CRI) in this paper is defined as any risk transfer
solution at the macro, meso and micro-level that aims to provide coverage against climate
risks.
You can read this paper in English, Spanish or French.
Share this #KnowledgeHubHighlight on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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