Moderated by:
Beom Ha Jee, Professor and Dean, School of Management and Economics, Handong Global University, Korea
Rodis Paik, Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs, MetLife Insurance Company of Korea
In many places in the world, especially since the financial crisis in 2008, consumer protection has become a growing focus for financial regulators. While insurers welcome measures that increase customer trust in insurance, consumer protection measures can sometimes have unintended consequences. For example, aggrieved customers are increasingly heading straight to the regulator for mediation and resolution of their concerns. This direct intervention by regulators on behalf of individual customers is problematic for insurers, creates an atmosphere where a fair outcome is hard to achieve, and undermines the bonds of trust between the insurer and its customer which is central to the insurance business.
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Trust-building empowers strategies for sustainable growth
By Mary Trussell, Partner, KPMG in the UK
“What are the fundamental characteristics required by our firm to survive and thrive over the next decade?” That’s the recurrent question that my colleagues and I hear from our clients across geographies and insurance lines.
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Michael J. Morrissey, IIS President and CEO
Keynote - 13th Asia CEO Insurance Summit, March 21, 2013
When I am asked about a The new World Insurance Order, I am reminded that we insurers are not alone in this turbulent economic environment. Many, if not most industries, also uneasily face a truly new world. Why?
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March 2013
Fergal O'Shea and Andy Staudt
Global mergers and acquisitions (M&As) will continue to be driven by market access and capital efficiency, creating opportunity for those insurers that can match these goals with their growth plans.
Pushing ourselves to simplify, the two phrases we would use to describe global M&As in 2012 and our expectations for 2013 are market access and capital efficiency.
For property & casualty (P&C) and life insurers, market access has been incredibly crucial over the last year. Multinationals are entering and expanding their operations in the emerging and just-emerging economies in Latin America, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Further, Lloyd's syndicates are still receiving positive book valuations, unlike insurance markets in Bermuda, the U.S. and Europe, all of which continue to trade at a discount. Even so, capital can still be an issue. Indeed, there have been a number of distressed sales over the last year. But soft markets and a still-depressed world economy are making organic growth tougher to obtain and encouraging companies to look beyond their traditional markets to grow the bottom line.
For life insurers and, to a lesser degree, P&C carriers, capital efficiency continues to be critically important. Arguably, generating or maintaining capital is the foremost current consideration for any financial services group. Insurers are no longer expected to hold on to businesses that are a drag on capital unless they are core to the group's strategy. The opposite is true for market access, as witnessed by the number of strong life insurers that continue to divest noncore entities that are not achieving viable economies of scale in their specific markets and are now a drag on capital.
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The International Insurance Society’s 48th Annual Seminar in Rio de Janeiro June 17-20, 2012 focused on emerging insurance markets moving toward a more common approach to market structure, methods and regulation. The launch of the United Nations Environment Programme Financial Initiative Principles for Sustainable Insurance at the seminar acknowledged the key role insurance plays in sustainable economic development. Improved understanding of economic and environmental risks allows insurers to better manage existing risks and to accept a wider range of risks as insurable. The 49th Annual Seminar in Seoul, Korea June 16-19, 2013 will address a range of business development opportunities and challenges to capitalize on some key global risk trends, e.g., ageing, low interest rates, social media Solvency II, attracting talent. Both seminars represent unique opportunities to learn about and discuss the major insurance industry issues of the day. The annual seminars are supported the rest of the year by IIS’s rapidly developing website with proprietary member content and opportunities for member-to-member communication. We hope you will make it a priority to attend the Seoul seminar in June and make use of the website the rest of the year.
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