Twenty-six delegates from 13 countries from the Asean region and the rest of the world are currently in the country for a four-day workshop on “Market Conduct for Insurance Regulators and Supervisors”, which is being held at the Kiulap Plaza Hotel.
The Asean Insurance Training & Research Institute (AITRI) workshop, which began yesterday, is being co-organised by AITRI and Brunei Darussalam’s Ministry of Finance. The main objective of the course is to understand what “Market Conduct” entails and its priorities from the regulatory perspectives.

The workshop was officiated by the Assistant Director of Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Finance, Dyg Hajah Nurliati Haji Md Idris.

“This kind of workshop would result in the transfer of knowledge and technical know-hows to all members and assist in the effort to regenerate economic growth and financial stability in the region,” said Dyg Hajah Nurliati.

“The insurance industry has now become more challenging and more complicated. New insurance products emerge with newer and changing consumer demands and cross-cutting trend of the different financial products.

“Our task as regulators and supervisors has (thus) become more daunting and complex.”

In light of this, the workshop “is indeed relevant and significant to our continuous capacity building and knowledge enhancement, particularly on insurance”, she said.

“We need to make sure that insurers are solvent at all times, and are able to meet up any liabilities to their policyholders, when and as they come,” she added.

The crux of the workshop, which concerns “Market Conduct Supervision” and “Consumer Protection” was presented by Mr Arup Chatterjee and Mr Ryan Workman, Principal Administrators from International Association of Insurance Supervision (IAIS).

The workshop also saw a line up of other distinguished speakers including Mr Yazid from Bank Negara Malaysia, Mr Tan Chee Khiang from Monetary Authority of Singapore, Mr K K Srinivasan, Chairman of General Insurance Council India and Mr Alok Kumar, CFO of ICICI Lombard General Insurance India.

Mr Ryan Workman, Secretariat of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) is also one of the speakers at the workshop.

Participants of the workshop comprise mainly representatives of Asean members countries, as well as six non-Asean countries namely Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Macau, Republic of Maldives, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.

This workshop stands as a testimony of AITRI’s commitment in assisting Asean countries improve their capabilities and technical knowledge.

It is hoped that these countries would be able to incorporate improvements in their existing supervisory framework and achieve the region’s goal of a stable, transparent and competitive insurance market.

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