Access to Insurance Initiative Newsletter 01/2019

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2019.

In our opening message, we take a look back at the highlights of the last year as well as provide an insight into our workplan for the months to come. As always, we also provide you with updates on the work of the Initiative, events and publications, and experiences and learning on inclusive insurance regulation and supervision across jurisdictions.

Follow us on Twitter @a2ii_org where we serve you news and updates on #inclusiveinsurance.

Heading into 2019 we wanted to take a moment and thank you for engaging with us over the past year in our events and trainings, through social media and for contributing to our work to ultimately generate learnings, improve lives, strengthen communities and grow economies.

On the brink of its 10th anniversary, the A2ii has strengthened its foundations, extended its expertise in new areas and improved the efficiency of its capacity building activities.

The topic of 2018 was InsurTech, both the exciting opportunities it presents for greater financial inclusion but also the consumer risks and regulatory challenges. We organised multi-stakeholder dialogue events on the topic, supervisory only webinars as well as published a study exploring consumer data protection risks arising from technological developments. 

Over the course of 2018, our trainings and events have attracted 753 stakeholders of which 534 were supervisors coming from 80 countries worldwide. In addition to our publication on consumer data protection and privacy, we also published studies on regulating mobile insurance, supervsiory approaches to index based insurance and inclusion of insurance in national financial inclusion strategies.

The results of our yearly Stakeholder Survey show that 90% of insurance supervisors found our events and technical materials helpful in designing regulations and supervisory systems that foster access to insurance. We are particularly thrilled about that.

Here, we would also like to highlight the successfully completed pilot of the Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab, a new A2ii format, supporting insurance supervisors in working with key stakeholders in their market to come up with innovations to drive insurance market growth.

This year also saw the A2ii broadening the range of its trainings with the development of new training for supervisors on actuarial skills. Our WebEx Consultation Calls also continued to grow in success with a large number of supervisors participating.

In 2018 the A2ii has entered its Third Phase that will run until 2022. Looking forward, our strategy will include:

• Strengthened global knowledge creation;
• A stronger focus on innovative topics;
• Increased focus on regional implementation support complemented by carefully selected country level collaborations;
• Improved understanding of the impact of an inclusive approach to regulation and supervision;
• Better tailored and targeted dissemination and learning events;
• A stronger focus on advocacy and policymakers; and
• increased engagement with strategic partners.

The topic of 2019 is Climate Risk Insurance and Disaster Resilience. Over the course of 2019 three IAIS – A2ii  - MIN Consultative Forums on the topic will be held in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  We will also be doing a study exploring the insurance supervisors role in closing the protection gap and supporting the availability of more products to protect against (natural) disasters.  

Lastly, we are very excited to be celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year! On top of our regular workplan, throughout the year we will be rolling out anniversary-specific activities to showcase the history, main stakeholders, the staff and successes of A2ii. For more information keep an eye on our website and #A2ii10 on social media.

Thank you for contributing to our mission and taking the time to engage in conversations and share with us your questions, thoughts and ideas on the opportunities and challenges of inclusive insurance. We look forward to new topics, new learnings, strengthened relationships and new partnerships in 2019.

Recent events

The annual meeting of the A2ii Governing Council in Vienna

12 December, Vienna, Austria

The A2ii Governing Council Chair Peter Braumüller, Financial Markets Authority (FMA) Austria hosted this year’s annual meeting of the A2ii Governing Council.

The Governing Council approved the workplan and budget for 2019.  The A2iis 10 year anniversary plans were welcomed and the opportunity it will provide to take a closer look at the outcomes of 10 years of support to insurance supervisors striving to advance financial inclusion in their jurisdictions and to analyse the impact of insurance regulation. Governing Council members also appreciated the choice of the A2ii’s annual theme 2019 on the regulators’ role in strengthening resilience to climate and disaster risk.

A large part of discussions was dedicated to a strategic review of A2ii’s capacity building activities the team is currently undertaking:  With the start of its third phase in mid-2018, A2ii is taking a closer look at its capacity building activities, including not only a critical review of existing but also the development of new, innovative tools.

The Governing Council also further discussed the A2ii’s funding strategy and potential sources to support A2ii’s sustainability in the longer run. This discussion will accompany the A2ii throughout the next years, as we strive to align funding with the A2ii’s long-term mission of strengthening supervisors’ capacity as the IAIS’s implementation partner.

Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab comes to an official end with online reporting session

4 December

On 4 December, the last official event of the Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab (iii-lab) took place. During this online reporting session, all participating country teams (Albania, Ghana, Kenya and Mongolia), presented the main results that emerged from the 12-month process, reported on the challenges they had encountered and their plans for continuing the work in their countries. The online reporting session also provided space for reflection on team members personal development as a result of the iii-lab.

The iii-lab has yielded a number of initial results. These range from a strengthened role of the supervisor in market development, concrete changes to regulation (e.g. paperless policies are now allowed in Mongolia), increased collaboration amongst the industry and the implementation of a number of innovative solutions to increase uptake of insurance. Innovations under consideration include: new insurance products for the agricultural sector in Albania, workshops for informal business owners to identify their risks and raise insurance awareness in Ghana, a regulatory sandbox in Kenya and the development of an insurance game app in Mongolia. All country teams are committed to continuing the work and IRA Kenya has offered to host another workshop for all country teams in early 2019.

For an overview of the iii-lab process and initial results, click here. A video on the iii-lab is available here. Following the successful completion of the iii-lab pilot, the A2ii is planning to organise another iii-lab in the future.

Upcoming Events

Regulating InsurTech: Role of the regulator in managing data risks and protecting consumers - Consultation Call

24 January 2019, WebEx

Emerging technological innovations, the use of big data and AI hold great potential to reach new customers, offer greater value products and enhance operating efficiency. However, they also generate new questions and challenges for insurance supervisors. In 2018, the A2ii focused on the theme of InsurTech, its status and regulatory challenges and also published a thematic report on Regulating for responsible innovation.

The first call of 2019 will highlight the main insights gained and it will explore the potential and risks of the use of new data. It will explore how to regulate for responsible data innovation and what role the insurance regulators have in dealing with consumer data protection and risks.

To register for this call, please click here.

IAIS-A2ii Regional Meeting for Sub-Saharan African insurance supervisors

5th and 6th of February 2019, Pretoria, South Africa

This meeting is intended to take stock of the activities on the  Regional Implementation Plan developed in 2017 and set the agenda for A2ii-IAIS capacity building activities in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. The meeting is jointly organised by the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and will be hosted by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

Capacity Building for Insurance Supervisors - Leveraging Actuarial Skills

11 - 15 February, Sub-Saharan Africa

1 - 5 April, Caribbean

The Training “Capacity Building for Insurance Supervisors-Leveraging Actuarial Skills”, jointly organised by the International Actuarial Association (IAA), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and funded by the UK Department for International Development, will take place in the first half of 2019. There will be trainings for 2 regions, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. The training for Sub-Saharan Africa will take place from 11-15 February 2019 in Mauritius and the training for the Caribbean region will take place from 1- 5 April 2019 in Trinidad & Tobago.

The training aims at strengthening the understanding and application of the actuarial concepts and tools needed to support effective insurance supervision and regulation. 

More information about the training can be found on our website.

Recent Publications

The A2ii Annual Report entitled Empowering Regulators – Developing Communities

The report covers the period from October 2017 to September 2018 and showcases the A2ii’s activities in supporting supervisors to make their markets more inclusive.  It also examines key trends in inclusive insurance markets and their implications.

The topical focus for 2018 has been digital financial inclusion which has been discussed during the Consultative Forums and Consultation Calls, as well as the subject of various publications.

To download the report follow this link.

Regulating for responsible data innovation: The role of insurance regulators in dealing with risks relating to consumer data protection and privacy

Data innovation is challenging the traditional role of insurance regulators. Two major dilemmas emerge that insurance regulators and indeed all financial sector regulators face when confronted with how to regulate consumer data: 1. They must tread the balance to achieve positive consumer outcomes, by both enabling data-driven innovation but still protecting consumers from the risks that arise 2. They must protect consumers within their sector from the risks that arise even though they do not have sole regulatory oversight over the collection, storage and use of consumer data, which cuts across society.

This study considers each of these dilemmas and explores the options available to regulators to achieve their objectives given these challenges. Download the study here. 

Join us in celebrating 10 years of working to promote inclusive insurance by supporting insurance supervisors, growing financial inclusion and advancing insurance markets.