Asian
To foster a promising ecosystem for newly qualified actuaries, there is a need to push the boundaries of the profession beyond traditional areas where actuarial expertise is of significance, said Mr Rajesh Dalmia, Chairman of the 20th Asian Actuarial Conference (AAC) and past President of the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI).
The future of the global economy lies in Asia, but there were some fundamental infrastructure requirements that were missing in some Asian markets, which would lead to an unsustainable growth projection, said Mr Richard Petty, Chairman of the Australia Chambers of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau, at the Worldwide Brokers Network General Meeting held in Singapore in October.
Income protection policies that safeguard consumers in the case of injury or ill health have been a loss-making business for three years in a row because of rising claims and lapse rates.
The Underwriting Agencies Council (UAC) has announced QBE Insurance as its newest strategic underwriting partner.
Total InsurTech premiums in China will exceed CNY1.1 trillion (US$160 billion) by 2020 from CNY250 billion in 2015, forecasts global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman and Chinese online insurer ZhongAn in a joint report.
The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) has announced the opening of a new overseas hub in Hong Kong. This is the first time in the organisation’s 142-year history that it has established a permanent presence outside of Europe.
Bank of China Group Insurance Company has won the Outstanding Online Platform Award - General Insurance while Manulife (International) Limited walked away with the Outstanding Online Platform Award – Life Insurance, at the Hong Kong Insurance Awards 2016.
Hong Kong insurance regulator, John Leung, said it welcomed the insurance industry and the Fintech community to develop more innovative insurance products and services and are ready to provide support and guidance to the insurers in applying Fintech to their business.
India and Myanmar have signed an MoU on insurance that provides for designing an academic and professional building programme for the insurance industry of Myanmar.The insurance MoU was signed between the Insurance Institute of India and the Financial Regulatory Department of Myanmar, reported local news agencies.
Indonesia should set up a national disaster insurance scheme because the country is prone to such calamities, according to Mr Kornelius Simanjuntak, an insurance industry veteran.
Japanese life insurers are being forced to take on greater corporate risk abroad, creating a new set of challenges for investment managers already squeezed by the ultra-low interest-rate environment.
South Korea’s top financial regulator has stressed the importance of making the most of Big Data in financial services, saying it is one of the government’s core policies to reform the nation’s financial system.
The growth of insurance and takaful sector in Malaysia had hit a plateau in recent years. Life insurance penetration remained stagnant at 55% over the past three years while domestic capacity for larger and more specialised risks appears to be reaching its limits for general insurance, said Datuk Muhammad Bin Ibrahim, Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), at the 6th Malaysia Insurance Summit 2016 in Kuala Lumpur in October.
A retiree, particularly if he is an urbanite, needs at least MYR1,500 (US$344) monthly to sustain himself, according to Universiti Utara Malaysia Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof Noor Azizi Ismail.
The government’s plan to provide universal health insurance is off to a weak start, with around 18,000 people enrolling in the scheme since mid-July. The scheme started out targeting the 1.3 million people in three districts. The low enrolment rate is attributed to lack of public education about the scheme.
The recent magnitude 7.8 New Zealand South Island earthquake could end up costing the insurance and reinsurance industry as much as US$3.5 billion, said Artemis citing risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
The government collected PHP19.38 billion (US$393.6 million) in taxes from the insurance industry last year, that involved duties, such as documentary stamp tax (DST), value-added (VAT) tax, premium tax and other tariffs.
MAS will now allow insurers to offer the full suite of life insurance products online without advice, announced Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of Singapore’s central bank at the opening of the FinTech Conference held as part of last month’s inaugural Singapore FinTech Festival.
Incubate solutions for new and emerging risks, embrace technology and innovation, and build strong pipeline of talent – these are the three priority areas for the general insurance industry, said Singapore’s Second Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong at the General Insurance Association (GIA) of Singapore’s 50th anniversary party, where he congratulated GIA for a job well done in helping Singapore grow and flourish all these years.
Wellness in the workplace makes business sense as research shows that investing in employees’ health leads to increases in productivity levels, lower costs and boosts in business profits. But more important than that, it is the smart thing to do and it is the right thing to do as employers owe a duty of care to employees, said Mr Mark Saunders, Group Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, AIA Group, at the inaugural AIA Vitality Summit in Singapore.
The issue of Thailand’s ageing population should be placed on the national agenda so it is dealt with seriously and systematically, urged Mr Veerathai Santiprabhob, Governor of the Bank of Thailand.
Leading global provider of general insurance technology solutions, SSP, has appointed IMD Company Ltd as its Thailand partner.
Vietnam will likely face damages of more than VND141.2 trillion (US$6.7 billion) due to natural disasters in the next 50 years, the World Bank has said.
Global
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has announced a steady progress on key initiatives, election of leadership, membership growth and stakeholder engagement plan at its 23rd Annual Conference, which was preceded by the Annual General Meeting of Members and three days of committee meetings.
In its latest annual report, the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA) has noted the important role that the insurance sector continues to play in underpinning the Global-20 (G-20) goals of growth and investment, as well as GFIA’s continued engagement with the G-20 presidency, which this year was held by China.
The International Insurance Society (IIS) has announced the nominees for the 2017 Insurance Hall of Fame, the premier industry award.
Insurers and reinsurers should capitalise on their unique risk understanding and work to reduce the protection gap, said Mr Nick Frankland, CEO of EMEA Operations, Guy Carpenter, at the Reinsurance Symposium in Baden-Baden which is hosted by Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, for the eighth year.
Corporate Risk Management
90% of Asia Pacific suppliers have experienced late payment of invoices from their B2B customers. Around 40% of suppliers anticipate increasing the use of credit management tools to protect cash flow from the B2B customers’ late payments over the next year. These are findings from credit insurer Atradius’ latest annual Payment Practices Barometer for APAC.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined a 10-point agenda for efforts towards disaster risk reduction, in an address he delivered at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in New Delhi last month.
Cybersecurity could not exist without these frameworks – a risk management framework to prioritise risk, an auditing framework for ensuring the right cybersecurity controls are in place and a governance of enterprise IT framework for an organisation’s digital agenda, said Mr Christos K Dimitriadis, Chair of ISACA, the global association which helps professionals around the globe realise the positive potential of technology in an evolving digital world. He was delivering the opening address of the inaugural CSX 2016 Asia Pacific conference held in Singapore last month.
Events Page
Lloyd’s China hosted Lloyd’s Day in Beijing on 28 October, a meet-the-market event and the largest one for Lloyd’s globally. Now in its fifth year, Lloyd’s China Day welcomed more than 500 guests from Lloyd’s syndicates, brokers, and insurers from the local and international markets.
CSC has signed a five-year license agreement with Phongsavanh Insurance (APA) Co Ltd to implement CSC’s Integral P&C, Integral Life and Integral Point-of-Sale systems. APA is CSC’s first local client in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and the first in the country to implement CSC Integral Suite to manage its portfolio of life and non-life insurance products.