Fadata blog

Economic growth in Asia is forecast to average around 7% per annum in the coming years, and with increasing prosperity, the insurance needs of Asia will grow, says Mr Bruce Bowers, CEO of Allianz Asia Pacific, outlining the economic outlook for the region following the global financial crisis.

Outlining prospects for this year and next, he said: “According to Allianz economists, we expect to see real economic growth of 8.1% for the entire region in 2010. Next year, the increase, at 7.3%, is likely to be less pronounced, mainly because the stimulus packages will have run their course by then.”

Explaining his bullish outlook, Mr Bowers said: “I basically see three main factors driving continued growth in Asia. Firstly, the recovery in world trade is continuing apace. Secondly, having been run down appreciably, inventories are likely to be stocked up again, providing a further boost to growth. And thirdly, the various fiscal stimulus packages, which will run until the end of 2010 in the majority of countries, will continue to bolster domestic demand this year.”

Sharing his growth plans for this year for the Asia Pacific where Allianz has 30% of its customers, numbering 22 million, he said: “Our agenda for 2010 is clear. We will continue to invest in sales and distribution in Asia. We will safeguard the solvency of our companies and benefit from the exceptional financial strength of Allianz. And we will work on our operating models to achieve even better customer focus and higher performance.”

Liberty Insurance launches special coverage for Argentinean fans going to support the light blue team on the World Cup in South Africa 2010. According to the portal ‘Goseguros.com’, with the aim of providing greater comfort to the fans on their trip, the company offers four options for sum insured for the risks: accidental death, permanent disability, partial or total accident reimbursement of medical and pharmaceutical expenses for accident and medical repatriation. The coverage is global and valid for 30 days.

3i Infotech, a global financial technology solutions and service provider announced their latest win for PREMIA ™ Insurance Solution at PhilPlans First Inc in the Philippines. PhilPlans, the market leader in the Philippines for Pre-Need life insurance products, which includes innovative life, pension, education and mortality plans, had earlier acquired the business from American International Group (AIG). The initial phase of this project will see PREMIA™ Insurance Solution being implemented to automate end to end operation for Philplans, which would include functions such as underwriting/policy administration, claims management, reinsurance and accounting from a variety of distribution channels.

“We are delighted to welcome Philplans to the growing family of our customers and we strongly believe that our award winning insurance solution PREMIA™ will enable Philplans to emerge as the most preferred provider of insurance products in the Philippines”, commented Mr Abhijit Banerjee, Senior Vice President and Head of Insurance Practice at 3i Infotech Asia Pacific. Mr Banerjee further added, “With this deal, we have further strengthened our position in the Philippines market, with established customers in Insurance as well as Banking space. This deal also reinforces our market dominance across the region with strong footprints in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia”.

Speaking at the formal contract signing ceremony held at the Shangri La Hotel, Makati City, Mr Santiago,Cualoping, Vice President of IT, Liability Containment, and Special Projects of Philplans emphatically stated that PhilPlans being the market leader for Pre Need products was looking to invest in cutting edge technology to manage its growing business volumes as well as business complexities, which outgrew the existing system used by them. Towards this, Philplans had organised a stringent selection process, which involved a detailed evaluation of local as well as international vendors through live proof of concept (POC) and capability demonstrations. In the end, 3i Infotech’s PREMIA™ solution emerged a clear winner due to high fitment ratio and strong domain know-how demonstrated during the complete evaluation process. The strong commitment for the Philippines market demonstrated by 3i Infotech helped in tilting the decision in their favour.

t’azur has signed an agreement with Gulf International Bank (GIB) to provide GIB’s employees and their families with medical insurance.

Under the agreement, t’azur will provide more than 800 members with full medical coverage in addition to worldwide emergency medical treatment

“We are pleased to welcome a prestigious institution such as GIB among our clients…we are looking forward to working with GIB very closely from now on,” said t’azur’s Chief Executive Officer Nikolaus Frei.

Syria’s insurance industry should reach US$500 million in premiums by the end of 2011, up from $313 million in 2009, said Dr Mohammad Al Hussein, Minister of Finance, in his welcome speech at the 5th Damascus Insurance Forum which began yesterday.

He said the industry is expected to reach $1 billion by 2020. “The current size of the market does not represent the actual potential of the Syrian insurance industry. We expect the market to further grow and for the insurance penetration to register at least 2% in the coming period.”

He added that 2010 will be the year of medical insurance in Syria as the largest national insurance project takes off, confirming his support to the project which will expand to include 750,000 persons in the near future. The first step was taken last year when the public sector administrative staff was insured by this plan according to decree number 65/2009.

Dr Al Hussein also confirmed the Syrian government’s commitment to creating a strong and competitive insurance sector capable of serving the national economy on a healthy and sound basis.

Organised by the Syrian Insurance Federation (SIF) in coordination with the General Arab Insurance Federation (GAIF) and under the supervision of the Syrian Insurance Supervisory (SISC), the Forum is held under the theme, “Towards a Developed Insurance Industry.”

Germany-based insurance group Allianz said its operating profit in the MENA region increased by 19% to 91 million euros (US$125.1 million) in 2009, while its total premiums amounted to 2.2 billion euros compared to 2.4 billion euros in 2008.

In India, which dominates the regional results of MENA, Bajaj Allianz Life and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance have consolidated top three positions among private life and P&C insurers with gross written premiums of more than 2 billion euros. Of the total, the life entity accounted for 1.7 billion euros, while the P&C unit accounted for 365 million euros.

In 2009, Allianz’s Asia Pacific operations saw its premiums grow 15% y-o-y to 6.5 billion euros. Operating profit stood at 355 million euros.

Dr Werner Zedelius, member of Board of Allianz SE responsible for Growth Markets, said: “Overall, I am very glad to see that Allianz emerged stronger from the crises. Asia Pacific and the MENA region strengthened their role as a growth regions for Allianz in 2009.”

“Our agenda for 2010 is clear. We will continue to invest in sales and distribution in Asia, Middle East and North Africa. We will safeguard the solvency of our companies and benefit from the exceptional financial strength of Allianz. And we will work on our operating models to achieve even better customer focus and higher performance,” said Dr Zedelius.

“We are on track to reach 10 billion euros in premiums in Asia Pacific and MENA over the next years and to attain a top-5 position in each market at least.”

AXA Insurance Gulf recorded a net profit of US$40 million last year, up 19% on a year earlier, while its gross written premium grew slightly over 8% to $445 million.

Other than the UAE, AXA’s Gulf markets reported growth ranging between 15% and 26%. The insurer said growth in the Abu Dhabi market increased by 25%, while the Dubai market posted a slight decline. in statement that “2010 will be a challenging year with competitors trying to grab market share by aggressive means AXA.

The insurer said in statement that “2010 will be a challenging year with competitors trying to grab market share by aggressive means. AXA will continue investing in the region and soliciting feedback from its customers in order improve products and services. Our focus will be to continue to further develop our product offering, reward our claims free clients with good rates, attract and retain the right customers and employees and continue to invest in tools that will make life easier for our clients.”

Thailand’s insurance industry is gearing for 15% growth this year given the improving global and domestic economies and the growing microinsurance sector, reports the Bangkok Post citing the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC).

The insurance industry’s value is estimated at 424.12 billion baht (US$12.7billion) this year based on total written premiums, up by 15% from last year. The life sector accounts for 305.08 billion baht, while the non-life for 119.04 billion baht.

Life insurance is projected to grow by 15-20% this year, while the non-life sector is expected to post 6-9% growth.

OIC expects the whole insurance industry contribution to Thai GDP to surge to 4.6% this year, up from 4.20% in 2009 and 3.62% in 2008.

This prediction is based on Thailand’s economy growing by 3.3-3.5%, and the global economy growing by 3%, said OIC Secretary-General Chantra Purnariksha

Following are important notes to run INSIS application successfully from your MS Windows workstation:

• Make sure that your workstation resolve correctly your INSIS Application server
• Use MS Internet Explorer 6 SP1+.
• Use Adobe Acrobat Reader 6+  to open INSIS reports automatically in the browser.
• Add INSIS Application server URL http://your_full_server_name in the “Trusted sites” zone of the browser.
• When starting INSIS for the first time it is recommended to have ‘write’ rights in “C:\Program files” directory. This is required by the automatic installation of Oracle Jinitiator (required java plugin), when INSIS is run for the first time.
• When starting INSIS for the first time “Security warning” window will appear about security certificates. You should choose “Grant always” option.
• Allow pop-ups for your INSIS Application server URL http://your_full_server_name in the browser. Pop-ups are required for INSIS reports and other functions.
• It is highly recommended to not use proxy servers or you should bypass them, when using Oracle Forms applications as INSIS.
• Access the INSIS application server only with its full server name (http://your_full_server_name/), do not use its IP address, because of the requirements of Oracle AS.

Welcome to the INSIS users’ networking area!

This blog is specially dedicated to helping all INSIS users -  professionals in business, finance, technology, and help them solving different technical and business problems  related with INSIS tasks -  training, support, implementation and future development of the system.

With the help of this networking group we are emphasising on bridging the boundaries between professional comunities  all over the world.

Networking Blog is the place where you can find the answers of the most frequently asked question, to hear the opinion of Fadata experts on different topics and exchange information with other clients.