Call to speed up insurance law review

was need for a review of the Act to empower the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) to rein in errant insurance companies, as well as to deal with issues of corporate governance, customer satisfaction and compliance issues.
A commission official, Mr Nhau Chivingira, in an address to the summer school, admitted that the current legislation was outdated and needed to be reviewed. He said some of the weaknesses in the current legislation included lack of corporate governance guidelines.
He added that there should be a review of the current penalties, which were not deterrent and resulted in some insurance firms using the loophole to circumvent critical regulatory requirements.
Mr Chivingira said there was also need for a review of the regulation to make it mandatory for IPEC to sign off on appointment of an actuary or actuarial review, especially for non-life insurers. Other issues proposed as needing attention include the need for stronger requirements relating to auditors and an insurance accounting standard and stringent disclosure requirements for all firms.
In addition to the review of the regulation, delegates also noted the need for the IPEC and the insurance industry to co-operate to speed up the implementation of Solvency II that seeks to address capitalisation, corporate governance and accountability issues — among others — in the insurance industry.
Other issues recommended by delegates include the need to reconsider the appointment of the IPEC board members to avoid issues of conflict of interest in cases where some directors of insurance firms were also board members of the IPEC.
The delegates also proposed the need for the industry and universities to collaborate and come up with a set of life tables that detail life expectancy levels in the country.
Meanwhile, the Standards Association of Zimbabwe director-general, Mrs Eve Gadzikwa, who spoke on customer service, urged insurance companies to consider certification as a way of addressing shortcomings in customer satisfaction. She said as SAZ they had a number of ISO certifications that were specifically targeted at the insurance sector. The IIZ summer school, which began on Sunday, was being held under the theme “Professionalism in a New Era”.