Tameer Bank and AsiaCare partner to offer health microinsurance
Pakistan Observer, 18 June 2010
Karachi—Tameer Bank, a fast growing microfinance bank, and AsiaCare Health and Life Insurance Company, signed an agreement to offer health microinsurance to Tameer Bank customers in the southern region of Pakistan. A statement said that an agreement was signed by Nadeem Hussain, President of Tameer Bank, and Dr. Mehdi Kazmi, Chief Executive Officer of AsiaCare. Speaking on the occasion, Nadeem Hussain said that it is a defining moment for Tameer Bank ‘as we gear up to launch a health microinsurance product for our customers’.
"Achieving this milestone, is part of our strategy and vision to emerge as a global benchmark for innovative and commercially viable microfinance solutions to the un-banked for their socio-economic empowerment," he added. Nadeem Hussain pointed out the general phenomenon observed and also substantiated by our consumer research is that when major health situation arises, the low-income segment is compelled to either borrow from friends and family or dig into their hard-earned savings, which either way leads to financial distress.
The situation aggravates as they are usually unable to access quality health care services. This product, branded as Tameer Sahet O Sukoon, is a customer-centric product designed to offer peace of mind to the low-income section or bottom of the pyramid, as they are usually called, he added. This is an effort to bridge the gap between haves and have nots and promote greater inclusion, it was further stated.
Read full article
Four companies control 96% of insurance businesses in Nigeria
Compass News Nigeria, 23 June 2010
Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), has revealed that only four companies are controlling the insurance industry’s business in Nigeria.
The umbrella body of all registered underwriting companies in the country, disclosed this through its 2009 Nigeria Insurance Digest.
According to the digest, the four leading industry operators are Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc and Intercontinental WAPIC Insurance Plc.
The digest further disclosed that about 65% of the underwriters accounted for less than 1% of the industry’s market share and that poor distribution of the market share was largely caused by lack of awareness and poor design of products.
The leading companies are Leadway Assurance which has largest market share of 14.45%, IGI with 5.61%, AIICO, 4.97% and Intercontinental WAPIC, 4.09%.
Read full article
Manulife Vietnam seeks sales momentum through agency growth
Insurance News Net, 21 June 2010
Manulife Vietnam reported its 2010 first-quarter new business annualised premiums rose 57% from the same period of 2009, while total premiums and deposits of the company reached 308 billion dong ($16.29 million), up 18% year-on-year.
The insurer's key growth drivers included increased contract size, strong agency growth and contributions from bancassurance, traditional and microinsurance distribution channels.
The Ho Chi Minh City-based company said it aims to maintain its top-three life insurer position in Vietnam through "aggressive" agency growth, product innovation and effective customer service strategies to continue the sales momentum for the year, said Carl Gustini, chief executive and general director of Manulife Vietnam in a statement.
Read full article
Life and personal accidents will drive microinsurance growth in Colombia
Business News Americas, 18 June 2010
The life and personal accident insurance segment will drive growth in Colombia's microinsurance industry this year, local insurance association Fasecolda's social responsibility director and member of the Microinsurance Network, Alejandra Diaz said in an interview with Business News Americas.
Burial insurance used to dominate the Colombian microinsurance industry, but due to a legal change that limited insurers' participation in this segment, the burial insurance segment has been decreasing while life and personal accident insurance is increasing its share of the total market, Diaz said.
In many countries, mandatory credit life insurance is included in microinsurance statistics, but Fasecolda does not include this as it believes that policies which are purchased on a voluntary basis gauge the industry more accurately.
The association does not have an official growth forecast for this year, but Diaz said it estimates that microinsurance premiums will grow above 15% compared to 2009.
According to the latest figures from Fasecolda, the industry in Colombia has seen a significant increase in customers, as the number of people covered by microinsurance increased 44% to approximately 2.7 million during the 12 months ending February.
Read full article
Tameer Bank and AsiaCare sign accord in Pakistan
Pakistan Daily Times, 18 June 2010
Tameer Bank and AsiaCare Health and Life Insurance Company have signed an agreement to offer health microinsurance to Tameer Bank customers in the southern region of Pakistan. Tameer Bank President Nadeem Hussain and AsiaCare CEO Dr Mehdi Kazmi signed the agreement.
Speaking on this occasion, Hussain said, “It is a defining moment for Tameer Bank as we gear up to launch a health microinsurance product for our customers. Achieving this milestone is part of our strategy and vision to emerge as a global benchmark for innovative and commercially viable microfinance solutions to the un-banked for their socio-economic empowerment.”
Tameer Bank was established in 2005 by a group of highly experienced bankers. In 2008, Telenor Pakistan acquired 51 percent fresh equity in Tameer. As of May 2010, Tameer has about 100 customer touch points, over 100,000 active loan customers, almost 200,000 active banking accounts, active loan portfolio of Rs 2.1 billion ($24 million), and customer deposits of Rs 1.7 billion ($20 million). Tameer is a technology-driven bank and offers branchless banking services under ‘EasyPaisa’ brand.
Read article
Microinsurance a hot topic at the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference in the Philippines
RBAP-MABS website, 17 June 2010
This year’s Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Conference highlighted microinsurance in two panel sessions, one discussing regulatory compliance and the other focusing on how to develop, market and manage microinsurance products and partners.
Vida Chiong, Deputy Commissioner of the Insurance Commission, kicked off the first panel discussion by emphasising how microinsurance and microfinance are complementary partners in poverty alleviation. Ms. Chiong cited that the recent BSP Circular No. 683 was a major breakthrough for the microinsurance industry as it allows rural banks to offer microinsurance products and services by partnering with commercial insurance providers as licensed microinsurance agents or brokers.
One proposed change to the licensing requirements, Ms. Chiong noted, was that microinsurance agents/brokers are not required to take the licensure examination as traditional agents are. However, microinsurance agents are required to undergo an approved Microinsurance Training Programme and pass an examination at the end of that programme. One of the prudential requirements for microinsurance agents and brokers defined so far is that rural banks must, at the time of application, have a minimum paid-up capital of P125,000 ($2,700) for agents and P10M ($217,000) for brokers.
There are a few steps that rural banks must comply with in order to be licensed as a microinsurance agent or broker and these are now being finalised in detail between RBAP, the BSP and the Insurance Commission.
Click here to read full article and see presentations
PICC Life cleared for rural individual life microinsurance pilot programme in China
Insurance News Net, 14 June 2010
PICC Life Insurance, an affiliate of PICC Property/Casualty under the People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Ltd., won approval to develop a rural individual life microinsurance pilot programme in 16 Chinese provinces and cities, according to China's insurance regulator.
PICC Life Insurance is allowed to provide two different types of rural individual life and accident/injury microinsurance products, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in a statement.
Beijing-based PICC Life Insurance mainly operates life, health and accident insurance, and reinsurance of individual life insurance, as well as investment businesses. The company has developed business networks in 32 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions. It has also developed more than 60,000 sales networks with banks and insurance agencies.
Read full article
Indian Finance Minister talks about the Popularization of Microinsurance
IIFL, 12 June 2010
The Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has asked insurance industry to give more focus to generate the required level of awareness about the benefits of insurance to rural people particularly those living in semi-urban and rural areas. They should make all efforts to take the necessary steps to ensure the reach of insurance to general masses.
After the inauguration of the new building of the Insurance Institute of India in Mumbai, he highlights that "one of the main objectives of promoting financial inclusion packages is to economically empower those sections of society which are otherwise denied access to financial services, by providing banking and credit services thereby focusing on bridging the rural credit gap."
"Lack of protective elements may do not serve the objective of promoting financial inclusion packages as the targeted section may fall back into the clutches of poverty in the event of unforeseen contingencies. Hence, to provide a hedge against these unforeseen risks, I would like popularization of microinsurance as one of the essential ingredients of financial inclusion packages."
Read full article
Insuring Haitians in the face of inevitable natural disasters
Miami Herald, 6 June 2010
Plagued by tropical storms, floods and hurricanes that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and left even more destitute, Haiti has a long history with Mother Nature. Then on Jan. 12, she struck the country with yet another blow.
Six months after the earthquake, more than one million people remain homeless, and hundreds of thousands continue to live in squalid tent cities. For the Haitian people, today has little significance other than to highlight the lack of progress made toward rebuilding their lives.
Those of us working in Haiti understand the challenges and frustrations of this impossibly slow pace. We are still in emergency mode, trying to safeguard Haitians from overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions and opportunists looking to make a quick dollar. But right now, it’s also important to find proactive solutions to protect people from future natural disasters, especially with hurricane season under way.
Read full article
Microinsurance to mitigate climate change impact
Lloyd's News Centre, 4 June 2010
An insurance scheme that brings together climate change risk mitigation and crop insurance for poor farmers is about to begin a second trial in four communities in Northern Ethiopia with the intention of a regional roll out in 2011.
Underwritten by a local insurance company and reinsured by Swiss Re, the Horn of Africa Risk Mitigation Project uses a rainfall index to trigger compensation for farmers growing the Ethiopian staple grain crop of teff in case of drought. It is unique, however, in that the farmers can pay their premiums through labour on projects that will mitigate the effect of climate change in their area, such as tree planting.
To turn the labour into monetary value, the scheme uses a national government cash-for-work programme, which enables it to reach the most vulnerable farmers. About 60 percent of farmers paid their total premiums in this way, according to David Satterthwaite, senior global microinsurance officer for Oxfam America, one of the partners in the consortium that structured and organised the scheme. He explains, "lack of cash is the main reason that people don’t participate in insurance schemes. Using this government national cash for work programme is a way to address this issue and to scale up the size of the programme."
Read full article
Britak unveils new microinsurance product cover in Kenya
Business Daily Africa, 21 May 2010
British American Insurance (Britak) has launched a new personal accident insurance product whose premiums will be paid through the recently launched M-Kesho Account, a new mobile bank account product launched by Equity Bank and Safaricom.
The new product, to cost Sh530 ($6.5) per year or staggered monthly or weekly payments, is a microinsurance product that is likely to increase the pace of innovation in the insurance industry, which is struggling to increase penetration.
The product’s features like low premium, low monthly payments, application and premium payment over the mobile phone combines most of the qualities that have been identified as critical in the success of microinsurance product of its nature.
A study commissioned by the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) in 2008 identified the need for low cost insurance products as a major possible driver of insurance services’ growth in Kenya. As a result, several insurance companies have come up with low cost insurance products that have had mixed performance in the economy.
But insurance penetration in Kenya is dismal, with general insurance averaging 1.7 per cent according to the AKI data of 2008 while combined general and life insurance have penetration of 2.63 per cent.
Read full article
|
 and Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Conference highlighted microinsurance in two panel sessions, one discussing regulatory compliance and the other focusing on how to develop, market and manage microinsurance products and partners.</p>
<p>Vida Chiong, Deputy Commissioner of the Insurance Commission, kicked off the first panel discussion by emphasising how microinsurance and microfinance are complementary partners in poverty alleviation. Ms. Chiong cited that the recent <a href='http://www.bsp.gov.ph/regulations/regulations.asp?type=1&id=2513' target='_blank'>BSP Circular No. 683</a> was a major breakthrough for the microinsurance industry as it allows rural banks to offer microinsurance products and services by partnering with commercial insurance providers as licensed microinsurance agents or brokers.</p>
<p>One proposed change to the licensing requirements, Ms. Chiong noted, was that microinsurance agents/brokers are not required to take the licensure examination as traditional agents are. However, microinsurance agents are required to undergo an approved Microinsurance Training Programme and pass an examination at the end of that programme. One of the prudential requirements for microinsurance agents and brokers defined so far is that rural banks must, at the time of application, have a minimum paid-up capital of P125,000 ($2,700) for agents and P10M ($217,000) for brokers.</p>
<p>There are a few steps that rural banks must comply with in order to be licensed as a microinsurance agent or broker and these are now being finalised in detail between RBAP, the BSP and the Insurance Commission.</p>
<p>Click <a href='http://www.rbapmabs.org/blog/2010/06/microinsurance-a-hot-topic-at-the-2010-rbap-mabs-national-roundtable-conference/' target='_blank'>here</a> to read full article and see presentations</p>){kind=link}