Insurance industry, insurance supervisors and development organisations committed to contribute to greater security for people in developing countries
Microinsurance is a powerful instrument to reduce poverty. However, less than 3% of world’s poor have access to insurance. Insurance supervisors are ready to take up their role as key drivers for microinsurance market development and to expand access to the poor. As this is a new task and microinsurance is a new market, I benefited from sharing experience with the industry and insurance supervisors worldwide, said Jonathan Dixon, Deputy Executive Officer: Insurance, Financial Services Board, South Africa und Chairman of the Access to Insurance Initiative.
Parliamentary State Secretary in the BMZ, Gudrun Kopp, opened the conference “Enabling Microinsurance” by saying: Anyone losing their livelihood in a developing country – for example as a result of natural disasters or an accident – currently cannot hope for any financial support. Microinsurance products help poor people to secure their livelihood, often at low premiums. Our concern today is to work together to make such insurance products accessible to more people. For me, microinsurance is an example of modern and efficient development policy. The BMZ would include the results of the discussions in the current G20 negotiations.
The joint commitment was also underscored by BaFin President Jochen Sanio: For sustainable microfinance structures to be established, joint efforts in different areas are required, he made clear in Berlin. The insurance supervisors were also needed. It was their task to safeguard the interests of policyholders and the insured and to make sure that insurers are capable at all times of fulfilling their obligations under the insurance contracts. Policyholders have to be able to rely on their insurers, Sanio said in summary; this rang true all the more for policyholders at the lower end of the income pyramid who have to work hard for every cent of their insurance premium.
The conference’s organisers also include the Access to Insurance Initiative. Dr. Brigitte Klein, who heads the Initiative’s secretariat, sees the supervision aspect as important: Growth in the financial markets has to be strengthened so that insurance products on fair terms can be offered to poor people there.
Presentations and pictures of the conference will be available soon on the website.
