The prospects of recent insurance-specific initiatives to address the deficiencies of insurance arrangements in superannuation are limited, noted the Productivity Commission.
The Bangladesh government is set to hand out licences for new insurance companies even though many recently established insurers are yet to find a toehold in the industry despite five years of operation.
Small and medium-sized insurance companies are facing operational and financial pressures, according to an assessment by United Credit Ratings.
The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI) has launched its Motor Insurance DLT-based Authentication System (MIDAS), a blockchain application to help authenticate motor insurance cover notes/policies. DLT stands for distributed ledger technology.
Subscription to the government-backed flagship crop insurance scheme – named Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) – has seen a steep decline, driven by pay-outs which are either delayed by months or not settled altogether.
Reasuransi Indonesia Utama (Indonesia Re) has said that the total general reinsurance claims received due to the many natural disasters that hit Indonesia during 2018 reached more than IDR284bn ($20m).
Japan was hit by an unusually high number of weather-related disasters and geophysical natural catastrophes last year, according to a report by global reinsurance giant Munich Re.
The National B40 Protection Scheme was launched on 1 January with an initial fund size of MYR2bn ($486m).
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued directives requiring insurers to have cyber risk insurance, because of the increase in such risks due to growing reliance on technology.
InsurTech start-up PAL Network has signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) with Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Toyota Tsusho) and Allianz Malaysia to develop proof-of-concept (POC) using its blockchain technology for new smart contract-based insurance products.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will revive a comprehensive audit of financial institutions as early as March, according to the financial watchdog.
Taiwan’s insurance companies are paying attention to the US municipal bond market, following an announcement in November by Taiwanese regulators that domestic life insurers could buy US municipal revenue bonds, reported Bloomberg.
Total revenue in Vietnam’s insurance industry is estimated to have reached VND133tn ($5.7bn) in 2018, about 25% higher than in 2017 and exceeding the industry’s annual target of VND129.24tn set early last year, according to the Insurance Association of Vietnam (IAV).
Global
KPMG’s recently released Fraud Barometer found that the number of fraud cases reaching courts in the UK rose by 78% in 2018. The research, which records cases of alleged fraud with a value of more than £100,000 ($129,000) found that 453 cases with a total value of £1.2bn come to court across the UK last year.
Risk
Cyber risk has emerged as a core concern for Asia Pacific (APAC) businesses in 2019, just narrowly edged out by business interruption (BI) which continues to be top business threat for the seventh year running, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2019.