The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Insurance Authority is seeking to drive insurance and reinsurance growth by adapting regulations in areas such as bancassurance and dispute resolution, according to the organisations Director General.
Ebrahim Obaid Al Zaabi, Director General of the UAE Insurance Authority, recently said that new guidelines would be issued this year to regulate the 35 firms in the country which offer actuarial services.
“The outlook for the UAE insurance industry has improved slightly over the last year despite some global economic gloom. We expect domestic insurance premiums to grow in the next years.
“We have a number of regulations and instructions that are to be issued in 2017. We are also keen on developing alternative dispute resolution methods,” said Al Zaabi.
The announcement to revise regulations comes as an addition to measures undertaken in recent years to review laws to promote insurance industry growth in the region.
The broader Middle East re/insurance industry has previously been rated by A.M. Best with low levels of Enterprise Risk Management – perhaps an indication of the Insurance Authority’s impetus for the innovation competition.
According to a recent report by A.M. Best, companies in the Middle East have seen a drop in credit rating, reportedly due to low oil prices increasingly impacting the economy.
So any further adaptation to regulation in the UAE and wider Middle East, to boost the re/insurance industry, should be welcome news to re/insurers operating in the region under what is currently an environment of stringent regulations.
