World Executives Digest, Manila | Insurance regulators from Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the Philippines will meet with industry players in Makati City on January 23 to 24, 2018 to discuss how to strengthen financial protection for low-income people in the region through microinsurance.
They will discuss the use of digital technologies to reach more people, viable business models, disaster risk insurance (DRI) options for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance institutions, and public-private cooperation.
Inputs from the discussions will be used to formulate relevant policies in Asia and in member-countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Earlier meetings tackled health microinsurance, DRI for low-income households, and microinsurance for SMEs, among other topics.
The Asian regulators and industry players comprise the Mutual Exchange Forum on Inclusive Insurance (MEFIN) Network, which is pursuing knowledge exchange to strengthen microinsurance regulation, supervision, and market expansion in the region as a means of reducing persistent poverty.
The German government supports the network through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, to promote inclusive growth for sustainable development.
The Philippines is an active member of the network, with which it has shared its good practices in spurring microinsurance growth in the country.
Its good practices are now being adopted in Indonesia and Nepal, said GIZ program director Dr. Antonis Malagardis.
The Philippine Insurance Commission reported1 that by end-September 2017, 32.03 million Filipinos were already covered by microinsurance policies, 21.66% more than a year before.
This means that almost one in every three Filipinos now have financial risk protection through microinsurance.
Non-life insurance coverage accounted for much of the growth, with a 66.77% increase.
Life insurance coverage increased by 18.72%.
Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa added that microinsurance premium payments and contributions in the country grew by 30% to PHP5.17 billion in January to September 2017 from the same period in 2016.
