About the IAIS
Established in 1994, the IAIS represents insurance regulators and supervisors of some 190 jurisdictions in nearly 140 countries, constituting 97% of the world's insurance premiums. It also has more than 120 observers. Its objectives are to:
- Cooperate to contribute to improved supervision of the insurance industry on a domestic as well as on an international level in order to maintain efficient, fair, safe and stable insurance markets for the benefit and protection of policyholders;
- Promote the development of well-regulated insurance markets;
- Contribute to global financial stability.
The IAIS issues global insurance principles, standards and guidance papers, provides training and support on issues related to insurance supervision, and organises meetings and seminars for insurance supervisors.
Library
Fact Sheet 4
Partnership with the IAIS.
For more documents on the Initiative visit the library.
Strong role of the Initiative
“Access to insurance is the new frontier for financial inclusion in emerging markets”, remarked Maya Makanjee, CEO of FinMark Trust. “We look to this Initiative to play a strong role in spreading the message amongst regulators and supervisors.”
Benefits of the Access to Insurance Initiative and IAIS-Partnership
The Access to Insurance Initiative incorporates a critical set of activities that distinguishes it from individual country assistance provided bi-laterally. These activities form a key part of the process:
- Enable countries to benefit directly and explicitly from knowledge generated in other cases;
- Facilitate country contributions to wider dissemination of learning at a regional and global level;
- Support the development and dissemination of synthesis reports;
- Provide and benefit from IAIS processes and input.
The Initiative operates with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) being the international standard setter and forum of insurance supervisors. The IAIS was established in 1994 as an international organisation through which insurance regulators and supervisors can cooperate to contribute to improved regulation and supervision of the insurance industry on a domestic as well as on an international level in order to maintain efficient, fair, safe and stable insurance markets for the benefit and protection of policyholders. Today the IAIS represents insurance regulators and supervisors of some 190 jurisdictions in nearly 140 countries. In addition, it has more than 120 observer members. Part of its core objective is to promote the development of well-regulated insurance markets. The Initiative contributes to the IAIS efforts, and the IAIS provides valuable synergies and benefits to the Access to Insurance Initiative.
Both the IAIS and the Initiative benefit from the Relationship
| IAIS contributes | Initiative contributes |
|---|---|
| Convening and communication channels to supervisors | Knowledge generation of practices & experiences |
| Additional regional & global dissemination platforms for discusssion | Key country, regional and global dissemination and exchange events |
| Methodology for assessing regulatory and supervisory systems | Synthesis and distillation |
| Substantial training material for supervisory capacity building | In country follow up support |
| Platform to institutionalize learning for ongoing supervisor use | Input to future IAIS standards & guidance work |
IAIS standards and guidance
The Access to Insurance Initiative supports countries and the IAIS in their efforts to develop global standards and guidance as well as to assist in the implementation of those standards. The Initiative provides a key contribution to this process for the IAIS by generating knowledge about practices and experiences through the country diagnostics, synthesis and thematic research.
In line with the workplans of the IAIS, learning from the synthesis and research will find its way into IAIS materials through its development of standards and guidance. This process also provides the Initiative with a key vehicle to ensure that learning is institutionalized into the resources of supervisors worldwide and for ongoing reference.
The IAIS has a methodology for the assessment of regulatory and supervisory systems more generally. Including this methodology in the Intiatives’ country diagnostics facilitates the assessment of microinsurance issues within the context of regulatory and supervisory elements more generally. Moreover, it offers the potential for strengthening these key elements as part of the implementation phase.
Convening, communicating and disseminating
The Access to Insurance Initiative will conduct dissemination events as part of its country diagnostics and the development of regional and global synthesis documents. The IAIS can bring several contributions to these events through:
- its convening power to extend inclusion of supervisors to a wider group;
- a substantial body of training material that can be made available and included in seminars and workshops should it be found that specific areas of regulation and supervisory capacity strengthening would be beneficial; and
- the IAIS’ program of regional and global seminars can include access and microinsurance content to provide additional dissemination opportunities.
