The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) hosted the International InsureImpact Conference 2023 on December 13-14. On the conference’s second day, prominent experts and professionals from the insurance and financial sectors discussed crucial issues within the insurance industry to outline a strategic roadmap for the future trajectory of the country’s insurance sector.
The second day of conference was opened by President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi online while highlighting the importance of insurance in times of crisis, he asked SECP to focus on low penetration and come up with schemes to cover the need for disaster risk financing in times of calamity.
Alvi highlighted the challenges faced by insurance companies, including high insurance costs and deceptive marketing methods and emphasized the need for cost transparency and public image improvement in the insurance industry.
President Alvi praised SECP for taking the initiative and developing a five-year strategy with precise goals. He stated that the five-year plan is step in the right direction as it is critical to give social security coverage to Pakistanis through insurance penetration. Dr. Alvi emphasized the need to create awareness among the masses regarding the importance of insurance but also advised th industry to adopt a swift complaint redressal mechanism and resolve the issue of misleading marketing practices by insurance agents. Dr. Ishrat Hussain addressed the audience as key note speaker and shared his valuable insights for the insurance sector way forward. During his opening remarks, Dr. Hussain advised regulators to adopt two-track approach: Lighter regulatory oversight for running businesses and handholding for start-ups. He urged SECP to identify obstacles and establish conducive environment for nurturing of new business.
Dr. Ishrat said that the SECP being the unique regulator with dynamic jurisdiction, has a huge potential to mobilize households’ savings as well as corporate savings by developing and energizing the NBFC. The next session was kicked off with a presentation of concept paper on insurance pool dynamics by SECP namely “Demystifying the Complexities and Developing Collaborative Protection Structures”. The panelists, in light of their experiences discussed the way forward for re-insurance optimization to ensure retention of large risks within the country through leveraging of pool structure.
The last session of the day was a grand session on collaboration, technology and innovation where industry practitioners from various sectors assessed the possibility of association and collaborations between different sectors for the achievement of ultimate vision of increased insurance penetration in Pakistan.
During the closing remarks, Andres McCartney from Asian Development Bank (ADB) briefed about ADB’s program of supporting the initiative of increasing insurance coverage in Pakistan. Summing up the conference, Commissioner Insurance, Aamir Khan, said that insurance is the social and financial safety net and through better perception building and collective efforts insurance sector can be taken forward.
