International Conference: Enabling Microinsurance Markets
Overcoming the challenges for the insurance industry, regulators and supervisors
03-04 May 2010
Berlin, Germany
80 senior policymakers, industry and development experts from over 20 countries met in Berlin on May 3 to discuss how to improve access to financial services, particularly insurance, to the poor around the world.
Given that insurance protection is a central aspect of an economic system, it is essential to establish stable insurance markets, also in the context of the financial and economic crisis, as a contribution to financial market development and stability and for mobilising local resources. In this regard, microinsurance affords great scope for poverty reduction and social security. There is an untapped market for insurance among hundreds of millions of people in developing countries and emerging markets, provided insurance industry develops products and distribution procedures. However, an enabling policy, regulatory and supervisory framework is essential for healthy growth in the insurance market.
In Pittsburgh, the G-20 leaders committed to improving access to financial services for the poor by establishing the G-20 Financial Inclusion Expert Group. Its Subgroup Access through Innovation is working towards lessons on innovative approaches to providing financial services to the poor; promoting successful regulatory and supervisory approaches; and elaborating principles on financial access, financial literacy, and consumer protection. This is fully in line with the work the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has been implementing for the past 4 years through its IAIS-Microinsurance Network Joint Working Group and the recently established Access to Insurance Initiative (www.access-toinsurance. org).
‘Enabling Microinsurance Markets’ is co-hosted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and co-organized with the Access to Insurance Initiative.
