Audio slideshow: Index insurance for development and disaster management
Reuters Alertnet, 24 June 2009
Index insurance for development and disaster management from IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) Video Pages on Vimeo.
Climate has always presented a challenge to farmers, herders, fishermen and others whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment, particularly those in poor areas of the world. A type of insurance called index insurance now offers significant opportunities as a climate-risk management tool in developing countries, if certain challenges are overcome, according to IRI's latest Climate and Society publication, launched at the 2009 Global Humanitarian Forum.
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Microinsurance Growth - Microinsurance Industry sees Profits from the Poor
Reuters Feature, Jakarta, published by Forbes.com, 25 June 2009
This feature explores if commercial microinsurance is possible. In 1995, Michael McCord, president of the MicroInsurance Centre who recently discussed the topic with officials at Indonesia's central bank said he developed an entirely commercial microinsurance product backed by insurer AIG ( AIG - news - people ), with a view to selling it through a microfinance institute in Uganda.
"This example showed that commercial microinsurance is possible and became the demonstration model that helped other commercial insurers recognise the low-income market as viable," he said.
"Interest in microinsurance has been exploding throughout the world," said Craig Thorburn, a senior insurance specialist at the World Bank who has developed microinsurance programmes and who advises countries on insurance market development. "New projects and proposals are being developed in more and more countries. Government policy-makers are reviewing their regulations and the microinsurance sector does not appear to have been slowed by the crisis."
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Coming Soon to a Puppet Theater Near You - Microinsurance!
A new article has been published at the Allianz Knowledge website about the lack of financial education is a major obstacle to insurance coverage for billions of poor people. Can puppets do the trick
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USA Health debate shifting to public vs. private
Boston.com, 21 June 2009
It seemed clearer than ever last week that the major stumbling block for the weeks ahead will be whether to create a new public insurance option to compete with private insurers.
President Obama campaigned on a promise to make a government healthcare plan available for the uninsured to buy into, and Democrats generally support the idea, on the belief that it would offer lower premiums and force private insurers to do the same.
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See related articles:
Editorial, The New York Times, 20 June 2009
Opinion, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2009
Official Launch of LeapFrog Microinsurance Fund
PRNewswire, 16 June 2009
The LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund announced today that it has raised US$44 million. It is the world's first investment fund focused on microinsurance. The fund aims to invest in businesses that will bring insurance and financial services to 25 million low-income people in Africa and Asia.
The capital was raised from a diverse set of public and private investors around the world, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), FMO, Omidyar Network, Triodos-Doen, Hivos-Triodos Fund, ACCION International, Calvert Large Cap Growth Fund, wealth manager Felipe Medina, and the LeapFrog team. The team consists of former CEOs and pioneers in insurance and investment in emerging markets.
LeapFrog is holding a ceremony to mark the raising of this historic fund, on June 17, 2009, at the offices of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. The keynote speakers will be Mr. Plutarchos Sakellaris (Vice President of EIB), Mr. Rigterink (Chief Investment Officer of FMO), and Dr. Kuper.
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Ghana government pledges support for insurance industry
Ghana Business News, 10 June 2009
The government of Ghana has pledged its unflinching support for the insurance industry, considering its role in the economic development of the country. A speech read on behalf of the Commissioner of Insurance, Ms Josephine J. Amoah indicated that though the Life Insurance Sector has experienced some significant growth over the years, it is still far from realizing its full potential in terms of facilitating wealth creation and contributing to the nation’s GDP.
She hinted that the National Insurance Commission has set up an actuarial unit to ensure that Life Insurance companies are adequately capitalized, solvent and employ sound actuarial practices in their operations and also collaborating with some development partners to develop micro insurance in order to afford the insurance companies, the opportunity to reach out the majority of Ghanaians who operate in the informal sector.
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Zurich Bolivia and Microfinance Bank BancoSol To Offer Life Insurance To Bolivian Emigrants
Microcapital Story, 9 June 2009
Zurich Bolivia, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, and the microfinance bank BancoSol of Bolivia have partnered to offer insurance to Bolivian emigrants in Spain. The insurance comes in four different plans. The first plan, requiring a premium of USD 57, covers 10,000 dollars in case of death due to any cause and the return of the body to Bolivia. The second plan, requiring an annual premium of USD 86, offers the same benefits, as well as home expenses for the family for one calendar year. The third plan, requiring a premium of USD 100, covers the return of the body to Bolivia and the cost of education for two children up to USD 300 per year per child. The fourth plan, requiring a premium of USD 129, includes all of the above benefits.
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RMS progresses microinsurance agenda against catastrophic earthquake risk in rural China
Press Release Point, 8 June 2009
New quantitative analysis by Risk Management Solutions (RMS) reveals that a microinsurance system could be both technically and commercially viable to provide cover against catastrophic earthquake risk in rural China.
While microinsurance systems exist for life insurance, significant business and implementation challenges have prevented similar systems from being developed for catastrophic risk cover. RMS’ pilot project - including complete risk quantification and the conceptual design for a feasible insurance product - shows that premiums of less than 10 Chinese Renminbi (approximately $1.50) could be charged for the approximately 55 million low-income households in rural China. This would generate total premium income of around 550 million RMB ($80 million), which RMS calculates is sufficiently above the total estimated risk and operational costs of around 400 million RMB ($60m) based on average annual losses of around 180 million RMB ($25m).
“China is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, with almost half of the population located in moderate to highly hazardous areas. Last year’s Wenchuan earthquake painfully demonstrates the devastation that can be caused, yet there is still very little insurance penetration,” said Dr. Zifa Wang, head of the RMS China office. “A micro-insurance system, with simple products that provide quick disbursement of funds, would provide a financial buffer against the impact of these high-severity events and facilitate recovery efforts in rural areas.”
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See also article in Insurance Journal, 8 June 2009
Training: Financial Mainstreaming of Microinsurance and Savings
Cagayan de Or City, Philippines
2 July - 4 July 2009
Organised by Sedpi and Ateneo de Manila University
The training presents the seven basic principles of insurance and challenges that microinsurance faces. Participants will be able to know existing coping mechanisms of the poor against adversities. The course will differentiate characteristics of informal and formal insurance. Different microinsurance products will be discussed given their relative complexity to implement. Participants will likewise be taught on a framework to assess insurance needs of clients. The course also outlines strategies in implementation such as linking up with formal insurance or being dependent; and making the microinsurance mandatory or voluntary.
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Indian farmers to insure themselves against climate change crop failure
The Guardian, 8 June 2009
For more than half a million farmers in rural India the age old fear of crops failing due to bad weather could soon be banished, thanks to an innovative insurance scheme that UN negotiators gathering in Bonn this week are considering as a central component of climate change adaptation measures in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Following a successful trial last month, MicroEnsure, a company specialising in providing insurance to poor communities, plans to launch a scheme next year for up to 600,000 farmers in India's Kolhapur province allowing them to insure against their rice crops failing due to drought or heavy rains during the plants' flowering period.
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BSP Philippines doubts whether rural banks can sell insurance
Business Mirror, 3 June 2009
The monetary authorities believe in the idea of extending micro insurance policies in the often underserved areas of the countryside but are not sure the rural banking system can do the job.
Deputy governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said BSP is seriously evaluating the proposal presented by the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) whose members want to be able to cross-sell insurance products like their big bank cousins in urban areas.
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China Life to Boost Microinsurance Business in Hubei
Tradingmarkets.com, 3 June 2009
China Life Insurance Company Ltd., a life insurance heavyweight in the country, plans to boost its microinsurance pilot business in Hubei, a province in central China.
The company will try to make microinsurance products available in 40 sub-branches in the counties of the province to lure 1 million buyers this year, said an executive for China Life Hubei branch on June 2. 16 sub-branches across the province were selected to run the micro-insurance business when the pilot program was first launched in 2008.
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Lloyd's CEO Says Insurance May Play 'Bigger Role' in Poor Regions
Insurance Journal, 2 June 2009
Lloyd's CEO Richard Ward, in a speech given to a meeting in Tokyo of the Geneva Association, the organization for the study of insurance economics today, called for insurance to play a bigger role in providing vital financial assistance to catastrophe-hit areas and in helping some of the world's poorest regions to prosper. He added, however, that the industry cannot be seen as a panacea for the new risks being created by the white-hot pace of technological development.
He also touched on the perils posed by climate change and such innovations as microinsurance and models like the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which combines funding from governments and the World Bank with capital from insurers, reinsurers and the financial markets to pay out in the wake of a hurricane or earthquake.
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Manulife launching three new products this year
Philstar.com, 2 June 2009
The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Phils.) Inc. (Manulife Philippines) introduces three new products this year.
To keep pace with a positive momentum, Manulife will introduce innovative life insurance and pre-need products, including a critical illness product, a principal protect product, and a medium-type life insurance product (between a microinsurance and the regular life insurance product).
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Wake up call on African Insurance Practitioners
Vanguard Online Edition, 1 June 2009
The African insurance industry has for too long assumed that they know what their customers wanted rather than taking the pains to find out from them what they actually needed. Patience Saghana who was at the 36th African Insurance Organsation (AIO) held at Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania reports that participants resolved to now market the industry services to customers rather than just selling of insurance products to them
A lot of insurance companies in Africa, Mr Johnnie Wilcox, Managing Director of United African Insurance brokers (UAIB), confessed had shied away from microinsurance thus running after corporate and institutional business. Insurance brokers, he said, though had little or nothing to do with micro-insurance but he was of the view that insurance agents would be more relevant to microinsurance than brokers.
Nevertheless, Wilcox said that if only insurance brokers could look closely at microinsurance, they would find a role to play in generating the needed awareness and creating a vehicle to reach out to the grassroots.
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Trustco sheds non-core business as it plans for expansion
Business Report, 1 June 2009
Trustco, which is listed in Namibia and on the JSE, was focusing on its core microinsurance activities and disposing of peripheral businesses, managing director Quinton van Rooyen said last week.
Van Rooyen said: "Micro-insurance will remain an integral part of the group's strategy to achieve continued growth through the launch of new business initiatives in Africa."
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