Commissioner Insurance, Fida Hussain Samoo, highlighted the regulatory reforms instituted recently. The Code of Corporate Governance, 2016, Bancassurance Regulations, 2015, Mincro-insurance Rules, 2014, Takaful Rules, 2012, Small Dispute Resolution Committees are a few of the major reforms that have been introduced to strengthen the regulatory regime, he said. The SECP focuses on low-income people because they face a number of vulnerabilities such as illness, accidents, disability, deaths and natural disasters.
Dr Antonis Malagardis, Programme Director (RFPI ASIA), emphasised the need for a clear definition of microinsurance and cited examples of inclusive insurance in development from South America, Africa and Asia. He said that among the 380 million policyholders of microinsurance world-wide almost half of them live in Asia with product credit life followed by personal accident and property insurance. Health and agriculture are catching up in terms of numbers since they are the most complex products so they need a particular attention by the regulators and the key market players. In the last 15 years the industry in Pakistan has experienced much development with regulated players.
Tariq Bakhtawar of the SECP said that Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is the outcome of the ongoing engagement with RFPI ASIA. Talking about MEFIN, he said Pakistan is leading Technical Working Group on Knowledge Management. Syed Nayyar Hussain said that the SECP had conducted a diagnostic study, in collaboration with the World Bank, in 2012 and SEC (Microinsurance) Rules were promulgated in 2014.
The SECP is revising the regulatory framework in general and especially for microinsurance while recognising the concept of "proportionality". Group discussions were conducted and product development activity was carried out by Dr Malagardis on the product development by participants. Distinguished guests from State Bank, Commerce Ministry, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, National Disaster Management Authority, Pakistan Microfinance Network, Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company, MFIs, Telenor, and Insurance Association of Pakistan shared their thoughts on regulatory framework and business models.
Nasar-us-Samad Qureshi, CEO, Alfalah Insurance, agreed to work jointly to promote microinsurance. Ahmed Kamal emphasised the need for the use of studies on cost cuttings in different sectors of the economy. Muhammad Imad Uddin, Additional Director, SBP, underlined the need for joint efforts by all regulators and the insurance sector.-PR