Bulletin

Welcome! In this newsletter, we 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 over the past month.

Follow us on Twitter @a2ii_org and LinkedIn and join the conversation on #inclusiveinsurance!

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive our newsletter in your inbox.

A message from Hannah Grant, Head of A2ii Secretariat

Dear friends,

2020 is a year we will probably never forget. 

As Covid-19 steadily took over the headlines, our professional and personal lives were put to the test. Business trips were cancelled, family visits postponed, and festivities and birthdays spent apart. For many people in the world, the effects go much deeper. 

Much of A2ii’s work in 2020 focused on helping supervisors weather the challenges of the pandemic. On this note, I would like to thank you all – development partners, insurance supervisors, industry practitioners, policymakers, and the occasional curious reader – for continuing to follow and contribute to our work. Your engagement has been key to enabling the A2ii team to respond proactively and reshape our activities to adapt to the ‘new normal’ of the insurance supervisory community. 

"...I would like to thank you all – development partners, insurance supervisors, industry practitioners, policymakers, and the occasional curious reader – for continuing to follow and contribute to our work."
 

2020 was the undoing of years of advancements in economic growth worldwide. Communities without or lacking safety nets – women, MSMEs, informal workers, those dependent on tourism or relying on remittances – have suffered. The true impact is yet to be seen, but we already know that emerging and developing economies, especially people living in the margins, are likely to be worse hit. 

As part of our Covid-19 response, in April we put up the Covid-19 Supervisory Tracker to reference best practices, country responses, news, and resources on the topic. Our Covid-19 Supervisory Dialogues and Public Pandemic Risk Series brought together supervisors around the globe as well as industry and other stakeholders in discussions about the best practices and country responses to the pandemic. Summaries of the discussions are up on our Blog. 

In addition, to supporting supervisors in dealing with the longer-term socio-economic impacts, we continued to provide capacity building support across a broad range of inclusive insurance topics. We organised 22 events with 1659 supervisors participating over the year. This is a record for the A2ii and speaks to some of the positive spin-offs of virtual events and increased ease of access.

Lastly, the end of 2020 saw the publication of the A2ii Supervisory KPIs Lexicon – an online interactive and searchable database for KPIs, sorted by categories, formulas and other parameters across four pillars: Market Conduct, Prudential, Market Development and SDGs. We hope that the Lexicon will serve as a reference tool for new and seasoned supervisors alike and will better equip insurance supervisors for challenges ahead.

Many of 2020’s challenges will undoubtedly follow us into 2021. As we gear our work towards helping supervisors deal with the fallout from the pandemic, we will also sharpen our focus on how insurance can contribute to building a more resilient future and build back better. Insurance, integrated with other measures, is an important policy tool for supporting economic resilience. As one of the world’s largest investors, the insurance sector, also holds the potential for boosting sustainable development with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the horizon.

"We will also be using our Supervisory Dialogues as a platform for exchange amongst supervisors, starting with the SDGs where insurance has the most obvious impact..."

Our topic for this year is Insurance 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Why does insurance matter for the SDGs, what is the 2021 baseline, why are robust regulation and supervision important? And how can the A2ii help? These are the questions that we will begin exploring with a short paper on insurance and the SDGs to be published in the first half of the year.

We will also be using our Supervisory Dialogues as a platform for exchange amongst supervisors, starting with the SDGs where insurance has the most obvious impact: SDG 1 – no poverty, 2 – zero hunger, 3 – good health and well-being, 5 – gender equality, 10 - reduced inequalities, 13 – climate action. The 2021 line-up will cover IFRS 17, Index Insurance, SDGs and inclusive insurance women’s access to insurance, climate change and biodiversity, innovation and digitalisation and SMEs insurance and we look forward to lively and insightful discussions.

As the industry and policymakers continue to develop and test solutions, we look forward to new insights and evidence. We stand ready to contribute actively and provide a platform for the discussions. On a related note, more broadly, we will be reflecting across our activities on whether physical, virtual or hybrid formats deliver the most impact. This is with the future in mind, when international travel resumes. In the meantime, we will continue to closely monitor how the pandemic unfolds and adjust our formats and content to provide supervisors with the most meaningful support.

Thank you once again for following our work and engaging with us throughout the past year. Also, I invite you to connect and stay up to date with new and exciting projects coming up in 2021 through the A2ii newsletter, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts.

I wish you a smooth beginning of the new year and a prosperous 2021. 

Stay healthy and well.

Hannah Grant

Covid-19 Insurance Supervisory Response Tracker 

We have a special page on our website dedicated to tracking worldwide supervisory responses, insurance news and learning resources (such as webinars).

Feel free to share relevant news with us via secretariat@a2ii.org, by tagging Access to Insurance Initiative on LinkedIn or by mentioning us on Twitter.

New on the A2ii Website

New interactive tool on A2ii website: Supervisory KPIs Lexicon | December 2020

The newly-launched Supervisory KPIs Lexicon is an interactive, searchable directory of KPIs for insurance supervisors covering four areas, or ‘pillars’ of supervisory priorities: prudential soundness, market conduct, insurance market development and the link between insurance and the Sustainable Development Goals. KPIs under each pillar are drawn from established global best practices, supervisory experience, as well as ongoing research.

We invite insurance supervisors to use this as a reference on KPIs for measuring insurance sector performance and the state of the insurance market in line with their respective supervisory mandates. As this is an ongoing project, we also encourage supervisors and experts to submit your technical input, experience applying the KPIs or any questions via the form on the page.

About the KPI Reporting Project
The KPI Lexicon is one part of a project by the A2ii, Cenfri together with a Steering Group comprising insurance supervisors from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Uganda and CIMA countries, chaired by South Africa. The project was initiated to support SSA insurance supervisors with obtaining the necessary information to conduct effective supervision and evaluate the insurance market, in line with ICP 9 while recognising that supervisory mandates are evolving. The project comprises three main outputs. The Background Paper on the project can be found here. The implementation guidance, which will provide practical notes on using and analysing the KPIs drawing on SSA experience, is under development and due to be completed at end-2021.

Upcoming events

IAA Seminar Mini-Series: Risk Based Financial Management and Supervisions | starting with the focus on Asia - Pacific on 12 January

The International Actuarial Association (IAA), in collaboration with the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), has unveiled a mini-series of seminars focused on Risk-based Financial Management and Supervision. The three-part mini-series will be held in January, focusing on Asia-Pacific time zones. In February, the focus will be time zones covering the Americas and Africa, and will also feature simultaneous translation to French and Spanish.

Continue reading...

Supervisory Dialogue Accounting Standards & IFRS 17: The role of Insurance Supervisors | 28 January

One of the most significant developments for the insurance industry is the introduction of the new international accounting standard, IFRS 17, due to come into force in 2023. The new standard will require insurers to revamp their financial reporting practices and financial statements with the overall objective of increasing transparency and comparability. While this development is to be welcomed, there are however important implementation challenges that insurance supervisors can help to address to facilitate a smooth transition. 

On this webinar, participants will hear from experts from the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who will present their joint paper on Accounting standards and Insurer Solvency Assessment. They will present the results of a survey carried out by 20 insurance supervisors and highlight the potential regulatory and supervisory implications arising from IFRS 17. 

Continue reading...

Staffing Update

We are pleased to welcome Lukas Keller to the A2ii team as an advisor. Lukas will be focusing on fundraising and our policymaker work.

Before joining the Initiative, he worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC, focusing on technical cooperation projects aimed at expanding pension system coverage in Latin America in collaboration with financial institutions and national pension supervisors. He has also worked in the past with IDB Lab, Dow Jones, Inc. and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe. He completed his bachelor’s studies in Business Management, Social Sciences and Law at the University of Magdeburg and holds master’s degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Konstanz and Rutgers University.