SECP chief proposes to declare 2005 as year of insurance sector

The Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Dr Tariq Hassan has proposed to declare 2005 as the year of development of insurance sector in Pakistan. He made the proposal in meetings held with the Pakistan Insurance Institute (PII), the Insurance Association of Pakistan (IAP) and the Pakistan Society of Actuaries (PSA) on Wednesday, said a spokesman of SECP. Chairman SECP, during the meetings suggested various steps necessary to improve the insurance sector in the country.
While addressing PII, he stressed the need to produce trained and well-qualified insurance professionals. He said that promotion of insurance education was of utmost importance to achieve the objective of having a sound and prudent management, as required under the insurance ordinance.
In this regard he asked PII to develop a vision to promote insurance education among the industry personnel and share a time-bound annual developmental plan with SECP for the purpose. Such a plan could be used for developing a medium to long term strategy for improving insurance education in the country, he added.
In a meeting with IAP, representative body of insurance companies, he said that it could play a meaningful role in improving the standards of education and training in the insurance sector.
He assured the office bearers of IAP of the SECP's support in efforts to facilitate PII to develop insurance education and training programme. He also suggested that an insurance awareness programme might be started on the print and electronic media to apprise the general public about the importance of insurance. Efforts must be made to inform and educate all sections of the society about the benefits and usefulness of insurance, he observed.
In his meeting with PSA, Dr Tariq Hassan said that PSA should play an active role in improving the framework for insurance sector, promoting corporate governance in the sector and developing a code of conduct for its members who are the appointed actuaries in life insurance companies.
He recommended setting up of an actuarial standards board to establish valuation basis for policyholders' liabilities and that the mortality tables used by life insurance companies should be revised and updated. He also discussed with the representatives of PSA the need to induct actuaries in SECP for proper monitoring of the sector.