The Thai General Insurance Association (TGIA) has established a working group to study insurance for electric vehicles (EVs), according to Dr Somporn Suebthawilkul, president of the TGIA and CEO of Dhipaya Group Holdings. He said that the TGIA would issue the results of its analysis to association members for them to exercise caution in offering EV insurance, according to local media reports. EV insurance is considered a new risk in the general insurance arena in Thailand, With insurers facing expensive claims for repair costs, many insurers are beginning to be cautious about the new insurance line, Mr Wasit Lamsam, SVP of Muang Thai Insurance and chairman of the TGIA’s Motor Insurance Committee, says that the growth of EV sales took off with China-manufactured EVs. He adds that the insurance industry can see that the EV trend will rise more and more. In addition, EV manufacturers are beginning to set up production bases in Thailand. “And insurers don't want to be left behind.” To boost sales, the business model of several EV manufacturers is characterised by free insurance for car buyers in the first year, and in some instances even up to two years. The insurance is sold in partnership with the manufacturer. It can be said that almost every brand has free insurance for the first year of the new brand, except Tesla. During this period, the premiums are paid for by the EV manufacturers. EV buyers can pick their insurer from a list of insurance companies with the insurers selected on the basis of the lowest insurance premiums. Every insurance company competes to be on the preferred list of EV car manufacturers. Mr Wasit said, “Because most EV cars are new cars, insurance companies have not yet seen the claim rates. So I understand that there is still enough profit. But now, there are clear signs that the loss ratio of EVs in the market has increased significantly, reaching the level of 90-100%, which is close to a loss.” The costs of repairs and spare parts for EVs are 50-60% higher than for combustion vehicles. After the free-premium period is over for an EV, insurers have to renew or sell their EV insurance products through normal channels, such as agents or brokers, There are increased sales costs, such as commissions payable at rates of 18%. Other risks are that the value of an EV depreciates rapidly, leading to a reduction in the insured sum. Mr Wasit says that currently, there are 120,000-130,000 insured EVs in Thailand. However, this number rises to 150,000 when electric motorcycles are counted. The 150,000 vehicles, represent a total premium income of THB4bn ($109m) to THB5bn. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

Regional InsurTech Igloo, together with the Philippines' largest mobile network Smart, has announced phone protection plans for its growing 55m-strong subscriber base. This partnership not only furthers Smart’s commitment to enhancing customer experience, but also highlights Igloo’s mission to provide as many avenues to device protection as possible for Filipinos, especially with the country being one of the social media capitals in the world, Igloo said in a statement. "In the Philippines, 84.4% of the population own smartphones, and individuals spend nearly four hours daily on social media, well above the global average of two and a half hours. As a highly connected and social nation, the importance of these devices for communication, productivity and entertainment is undeniable," said Igloo Philippines commercial lead Roberto Vea. "Recognising the essential role of these devices and the need to safeguard them, Igloo has partnered with Smart to introduce phone protection plans, providing our customers with peace of mind." Smart subscribers gain exclusive access to Phone Protect where they can purchase a phone protection plan with their preferred coverage and duration. It offers subscribers protection against accidental and liquid damage and includes professional repair and service at authorised centres for the Basic tier and additional protection against losses due to theft and robbery for the Plus tier. Plans start as low as PHP125 ($2.13) for a one-year coverage, making this one of the most affordable and comprehensive gadget care products available in the market. The insurance plan seamlessly integrates into the checkout process, allowing customers to review the plan details, associated premium and terms and conditions before finalising payment. This transparency ensures customers have a clear understanding of the additional cost and the benefits it adds to their transaction, enhancing their overall experience. From consumer finance to e-commerce, Igloo has been working to provide insurance to various sectors in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia. One of its most recent partnerships with Skyro and Salmon provided protection access to the underbanked segment, many of whom rely on digital lending companies for instalment purchases. Additionally, in collaboration with Growsari, an MSME enabler, Igloo piloted the Personal + Business Protection plan. This initiative aims to cover over 200,000 sari-sari stores (small neighbourhood sundry shops) across the country with financial assistance in case of unwanted incidents arising from natural calamities, such as floods from torrential rains. Igloo is a regional full-stack InsurTech firm headquartered in Singapore. It has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, and tech centres in China and India. With a mission of making insurance accessible for all, the firm leverages big data, real-time risk assessment and end-to-end automated claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for platform companies and insurance companies. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

KEY POINTS Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway’s top insurance executive Ajit Jain recently warned of the potential for “huge losses” in cybersecurity insurance in annual meeting comments. Buffett expressed concern about agents rushing to sign up cyber insurance clients without adequate actuarial data and risk analysis, and used Charlie Munger’s “rat poison” phrase to describe the boom. Despite Buffett’s harsh words, Berkshire Hathaway is the sixth-largest issuer of cybersecurity policies in U.S., according to Fitch Ratings, but it is still a tiny if fast-growing market, making up only 1% of all policies written. One of the messages that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway’s top insurance executive, Ajit Jain, sent to investors during the company’s recent annual shareholder meeting in Omaha was that cyber insurance, while currently profitable, still has too many unknowns and risks for Berkshire, a huge player in the insurance market, to be fully comfortable underwriting. Cyber insurance has become “a very fashionable product,” Jain said at the annual meeting. And it’s been a money maker for insurers, at least to date. He described current profitability as “fairly high” — at least 20% of the total premium ending up in the pockets of insurers. But at Berkshire, the message being sent to agents is one of caution. A primary reason is the difficulty in assessing how losses from a single occurrence don’t spiral into an aggregation of potential cyber losses. Jain gave the hypothetical example of when a major cloud provider’s platform “comes to a standstill.” “That aggregation potential can be huge, and not being able to have a worst-case gap on it is what scares us,” he said. “There’s no place where that kind of a dilemma enters into more than cyber,” Buffett said. “You may get an aggregation of risks that you never dreamt of, and maybe worse than some earthquake happening someplace.” Berkshire is in the cyber insurance business Industry analysts generally say while some of Berkshire’s caution is warranted, the general state of the cybersecurity insurance marketplace is stabilizing as it becomes profitable. And Gerald Glombicki, a senior director in Fitch Rating’s U.S. insurance group, points out that Berkshire Hathaway is issuing cybersecurity policies despite Buffett’s caution. According to Fitch’s analysis, Berkshire Hathaway is the sixth-largest issuer of such policies. Chubb, which Berkshire recently revealed a big investment in, and AIG are the largest. “Right now [cybersecurity insurance] is still a viable business model for many insurers,” Glombicki said. It is still a tiny market, representing only one percent of all policies issued, according to Glombicki. Because the cybersecurity business is so small, it gives insurance companies latitude to implement various policies to see what is working, and what isn’t, without a tremendous amount of exposure. Berkshire, as well as Chubb and AIG, declined to comment. “There is an element of unpredictability that is very unsettling, and I understand where [Buffett] is coming from, but I think it is really hard to avoid cyber risk entirely,” Glombicki said. He added though that there has still been no significant litigation that assigns culpability or tests the boundaries of the policies, and until the courts hear some culpability cases, some insurers may proceed more cautiously. ‘Could break the company’ Buffett says The problem with writing many policies, even with a $1 million limit per policy, is if a “single event” turns out to affect 1,000 policies. “You’ve written something that in no way we’re getting the proper price for, and could break the company,” Buffett said. While some notable leaders, like former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff — who now runs a global security risk management firm — have called for a government cybersecurity backstop of some sort, most experts don’t believe that is needed right now. Glombicki says that while the feds are looking at what role they can play, intervention likely won’t happen until an incident prompts it. Any government involvement “will probably happen after a big, expensive cyber-incident,” he said. “After September 11, the government put together a terrorist risk program. In cyber, we have not yet seen an attack of that scale. We are still in the stage of thinking about possible approaches.” Cyber insurance data shows growth and market confidence While the number of cybersecurity policies being written is small now, analysts don’t expect it to stay that way. “Rates are declining, which shows stability in the market,” said Mark Friedlander, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute. According to its data, cyber premiums are estimated to double over the next decade. In 2022, premiums totaled $11.9 billion. By 2025, Friedlander says, they are expected to double to $22.5 billion and increase to $33.3 billion by 2027. “This is clearly one of the fastest-growing segments of insurance. More companies are writing cybersecurity policies than ever before,” Friedlander said, attributing confidence among insurers to more sophisticated underwriting and stabilizing rates. He cited a 6% decline in cybersecurity insurance rates in the first quarter of 2024, following a 3% decline in 2023, as a clear signal that insurers feel more confident about jumping into the business. “Most commercial insurance, like auto and property, have all been increasing, so the decline is significant. It is a sign of stability and a decline in claims severity,” Friedlander said. And more insurers are entering the market because they have the tools and data to price the risk. “If you can do it at sound rates, you will write that coverage,”  Friedlander said. ‘You’re losing money’ Buffett and his top insurance lieutenant don’t agree. It’s the insurance “loss cost” — what the cost of goods sold could potentially be — that has Berkshire on the fence with a bigger move into cyber insurance. Jain said losses have been “fairly well contained” to date — not exceeding 40 cents on the policy dollar over the past four to five years — but he added, “there’s not enough data to be able to hang your hat on and say what your true loss cost is.” Jain said that in most cases agents at Berkshire are discouraged from writing cyber insurance, unless they need to write it to satisfy specific client needs. And even if they do, Jain leaves them with this message: “No matter how much you charge, you should tell yourself that each time you write a cyber insurance policy, you’re losing money. We can argue about how much money you’re losing, but the mindset should be you’re not making money on it. ... And then we should go from there.” Google Cloud says the risks are being overstated There is a perception that cyber risk is rapidly changing and, therefore, too unpredictable to underwrite in a systematic way, says Monica Shokrai, head of business risk and insurance at Google Cloud. But she added that the perception doesn’t match reality, and that the risk can largely be managed. “We don’t hold the same view as Warren Buffet on the topic,” she said. In Google’s view, the majority of cyber losses can be prevented or mitigated through basic cyber hygiene. “By understanding security, you can get to a place where your controls are in a much better place, where the risk is more manageable,” Shokrai said. Devastating attacks from nation-states, meanwhile, are in a separate category and have been rare. Insurers are already inoculating themselves from potential risk by making exclusions for certain catastrophic events. Many cybersecurity policies have coverage exemptions for nation-state attacks. “What they are trying to do is remain resilient and solvent in the event of a widespread event; what they have done to manage that is put in exclusions,” Shokrai said, and those include critical infrastructure, cyber war, and other widespread disruptive events. Ambiguities and subjectivities remain. What if someone is the victim of a cyberattack from a foreign-based gang that isn’t officially tied to a nation-state but may have received some ancillary logistical support?  Can an insurance company invoke a nation-state exclusion? Shokrai says categorizing how to attribute an event is the topic of much debate between insurance companies. “That is a big debate between insurance companies; it is an important distinction that needs clarity,” Shokrai said. Some experts say it is the ambiguity surrounding the industry’s margins that has investors like Buffett and insurance players like Berkshire spooked. But so far, the business has proven to be sound overall. “It is still a viable business model for many insurers,” said Josephine Wolff, an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who has been studying the evolving market for the past several years. But she added that a belief that the business is viable doesn’t mean things are not constantly changing, pointing to the recent ransomware surge over the past couple of years that saw large payouts by insurance companies — though notably still not enough to make the business unprofitable for most issuers. Cyber insurance helps make the entire ecosystem safer, according to Steve Griffin, co-founder of L3 Networks, a California-based managed services provider that specializes in cybersecurity. Policies require companies to adhere to certain cyber standards to attain coverage, and the more businesses that sign up for coverage, the safer the entire system becomes. And if a business knows they’ll be denied a claim if they don’t have some basic cybersecurity safeguards in place, that acts as an incentive to put them in place. Berkshire does believe the business will grow, it just isn’t sure at what cost. “My guess is at some point it might become a huge business, but it might be associated with huge losses,” Jain said. “I will tell you that most people want to be in anything that’s fashionable when they write insurance. And cyber’s an easy issue,” Buffett said. “You can write a lot of it. The agents like it. They’re getting the commission on every policy they write. ... I would say that human nature is such that most insurance companies will get very excited and their agents will get very excited, and it’s very fashionable and it’s kind of interesting, and as Charlie [Munger] would say, it may be rat poison.” While Griffin understands Buffett’s caution, he sees a generational divide over the risk outlook, and is optimistic about the cybersecurity insurance sector. “Probably Warren Buffet would have called cybersecurity insurance an opportunity when he was younger,” he said. Correction: Cybersecurity insurance rates declined 6% in the first quarter of 2024, following a 3% decline in 2023. An earlier version of this article misstated the 2023 decline. Source: cnbc.com

Across Asia, market conditions were mixed, with renewal outcomes varying by line of business. Natural catastrophe property risks remained challenged. Financial Lines saw a general softening, says Aon in its "Q1 2024 Global Insurance Market Insights Report" released last week. On Asia, the report says that despite a robust international insurer presence in the region, opportunities remained for new entrants, particularly in niche products such as Cyber, Crypto, and Transaction Solutions. Capacity was sufficient as new insurers began writing specialty products either directly or through MGAs (which allowed insurers to reduce their entry costs). Reinsurers sought premium and retention increases through the January 2024 renewal cycle with increased treaty costs driving increases in the direct market. Mr Paul Young, Aon’s head of Commercial Risk Solutions in Asia, said, “Market conditions remained challenging for natural catastrophe exposed property risks, where insurers continued to seek rate increases, as they are not positioned to absorb higher treaty reinsurance costs. The market for property risks that are not natural catastrophe exposed, and much of the balance of the market in general, has moderated or softened. On 3 April 2024, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of Taiwan. Damage assessments are still being undertaken. Taiwanese corporates, particularly in the technology and life sciences sectors, generally tend to purchase property damage and business interruption insurance. Due to the location of the quake, Aon anticipates moderate Property losses for insurers (and their reinsurers); these come after significant COVID pandemic claims and will further negatively impact profitability. If Business Interruption coverage is triggered, these losses could be significant given the tightness of supply chains and global demand. Aon’s comments on market dynamics in Asia in the report include: Pricing Pricing varied widely based on product line and geography, with competition tending to pressure pricing downward, especially for risks with favourable loss histories. Flat renewal pricing was generally available except where exposures leaned toward property in natural catastrophe zones; in such cases, insureds experienced rate increases. Capacity Across the region, capacity was generally sufficient for most risks; however, challenging risk types and some geographies experienced capacity limitations, particularly for natural catastrophe-exposed property risks. Singapore saw new international market entrants focused on growth. Underwriting Underwriting was prudent as underwriters sought to differentiate risk quality, offering favourable terms mostly to preferred risk types. Underwriting was more conservative and stringent for US exposures and higher-risk profiles. Limits Overall, expiring limits were available on most placements. Some client-selected decreases were observed as clients sought premium savings. In scattered cases where insurers reduced limits, coinsurance was leveraged to fill the resulting gaps. Limit increases were available on preferred risks. Deductibles Overall, most placements renewed with expiring deductibles, with the notable exceptions of natural catastrophe property risks and client-selected deductible increases (to achieve premium savings). Deductible increase options were often declined by insureds because the premium savings were deemed incommensurate with the additional risk. Coverages Overall, expiring terms and conditions were available on most placements and in some geographies and products, broader coverages were available, often for no additional premium. Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exclusions were imposed on liability risks regardless of confirmed PFAS exposures. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

Global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are growing fast and emerging as a new risk pool for the motor insurance industry, according to an "Economic Insight" report published by Swiss Re Institute. The market for EV insurance is growing rapidly in line with the sales of EVs. Estimates place the insurance market size at over $200bn globally by 2030 versus $51bn in 2022. EV driving behaviours, repair costs and vehicle risks are impacting underwriting profitability and may require closer links between carmakers and re/insurers, note the report’s authors. Ms Xin Dai, chief economist (China) and Mr Roman Lechner, P&C economic research lead, both of Swiss Re Instiute. Close to 14m EVs were sold globally in 2023, up 35% year-on-year and accounting for 18% of all car sales. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects EV sales to grow at an average ~30% annually from 2022-30. EVs are expected to be half of all new car sales globally by 2035, with 73m units estimated to be sold in 2040. Risks EV adoption is establishing new driving behaviours, vehicle risks and repairability that create new risk features for insurers. The key new driving behaviour is that EVs accelerate very abruptly from a stationary position compared with internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. This can create a higher probability of accidents and collisions causing own damage in crash tests. In China, an insurer has stated that the EV accident rate is nearly double that of ICE vehicles, attributed partly to a higher share of EVs in commercial use. EV vehicle risks centre on charging infrastructure installation and operation, and battery-as-a-service solutions such as battery swapping. Accumulation of fire and explosion risks also raise property- and liability-related exposures. EV repair costs are generally being found to be higher than ICE cars. A US study in 2022 found total repair costs were on average 26.6% more for EVs. This is confirmed by a study in Germany, which exhibited 30%-35% higher costs, and UK data showing 35% higher EV accidental damage costs. There are several reasons: the main engine plant and battery are at the front of the car; EVs have more digital sensing or laser/radar devices that create higher costs for repairs. EVs typically need more labour time for diagnostics and calibrations due to their high use of embedded software and driver assistance systems, and many EVs are highly integrated, so harder to repair. To support sales, EV producers are acquiring their own insurance licences, and some are partnering with insurance companies to offer risk covers. However, the new risks and repair costs associated with EVs can lead to challenges for the insurance industry. Deeper co-operation between re/insurers and EV producers may help to overcome the near-term underwriting challenges. EV producers know their vehicles' risk features and are accumulating driving data, while insurers are accumulating claims experience. Joint innovation could support EV insurance that integrates insureds' driving behaviour, or provides customised or added-service solutions to insureds, for example on repairs and maintenance. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

MANILA TIMES WITH PIRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL F. RELLOSA Press release WHAT is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “insurance?” Is it something to secure your loved ones’ future when you’re gone? Is it protection for your business to ensure it can recover no matter what? Is it an investment today that will be rewarding tomorrow? Whichever is top of mind for you, insurance is all these for everyone and much more. The Philippine insurance industry is one of the most robust in the Asian region. With development dating back to nearly two centuries, the concept of insurance is not strange to our countrymen. From the very familiar life and nonlife insurance to the flourishing micro-insurance segments, more and more Filipinos are looking into getting insured, enabling the preneed industry to enjoy significant and steady growth through the decades. With the pandemic and its resulting economic fallout radically shifting consumer needs, habits and expectations, industry experts wonder what’s in store for the years to come. Join The Manila Times (TMT) as it holds the online business forum, titled “2021 insurance industry outlook.” Keynote speaker Dennis Funa, commissioner of the Insurance Commission (IC), shares insights and updates on the IC’s key policies and digital transformation to encourage further innovation, growth and investment in health, life, property and livelihood insurance as well as micro-Insurance. The Times online forum also features Michael Rellosa, executive director of the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association, and Rahul Hora, president chief executive director of AXA Philippines. Livestreamed on The Manila Times Facebook page and YouTube channel and broadcast on The Manila Times TV on Tuesday, August 31 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, the “2021 insurance industry outlook” is hosted by Dante Francis “Klink” Ang 2nd, TMT president and chief executive officer (CEO), and moderated by Rey Lugtu, TMT business columnist and Hungry Workhorse CEO. Source: facebook.com/themanilatimesonline

AM Best has revised its market segment outlook on the Philippine non-life insurance market to stable from negative, citing factors that include strong investment yields amid insurance market and economic growth. In its Best’s Market Segment Report, “Market Segment Outlook: Philippines Non-Life Insurance,” AM Best states that the high domestic interest rate environment will keep insurers’ investment yields strong as companies reinvest their assets into higher yielding fixed-income instruments upon maturity. Opportunities in personal and commercial lines also are driving insurance market growth. While the main non-life business lines, in terms of premium share, remain fire and motor, the market experienced double-digit increases in the casualty, health and accident lines of business in 2023. Furthermore, primary rate increases in the property line are catching up to reinsurance rate hikes, although rate pressure remains due to heavy market competition. “The market has struggled to keep pace with reinsurance rate increases for the property line given a general reluctance to lose market share, but this trend is now shifting,” said Susan Tan, financial analyst, AM Best. “Earlier anticipated hikes in minimum catastrophe tariffs to drive premium rate increases are no longer seen as a prerequisite to ensure adequate premium rates to achieve underwriting profitability.” Additionally, the insurance market’s new accounting standard, the Philippine Financial Reporting Standard 17 (PFRS 17), takes effect on 1 January 2025. The implementation of PFRS 17, along with the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) framework adopted in 2023, is a positive development that will elevate risk management quality and financial resilience in the insurance market. Moderating factors in the outlook revision to stable include the market’s net retention of underwriting risks, which could create earnings volatility, as well as the exposure to natural catastrophe risk, which is high in the Philippines. To access the full copy of this special report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=343139. Tan will deliver a presentation on this market segment outlook at the Philippine Insurance Summit 2024. The event takes place 30 May 2024, at the New World Makati Hotel in Manila. To learn more about the Philippine Insurance Summit 2024, please visit the event overview. Source: news.ambest.com

Factors such as growing amounts of data, changing customer expectations, competition from newer, non-traditional players in the insurance industry and risk management and mitigation are some drivers behind increased digitalisation and automation in insurers, according to SS&C Blue Prism - ASEAN and Greater China region vice president of sales James Lucas. “Compounding these challenges, insurance companies are trying to keep up with the proliferation of new, intelligent technologies,” he said. In order to ensure a smoother transition in the process of digitalising and automating processes, Mr Lucas feels that insurers should first “establish an ideal outcome and ROI target”, whether it is in revenue, cost savings, customer experience or compliance. Once the objective is laid out, he said, it would be easier to deploy the automation to where it would be effective. He also believes that process mining could be used to “identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies” in operations. Once an area is found, he said, intelligent decision-making capabilities could be augmented to “evolve processes”. From there, he said, companies would be able to choose which solutions would best respond to the needs of the company, including “the metrics to monitor and drive ongoing improvements”. For example, Mr Lucas said, business process management would give “total visibility” of processes to help orchestrate and manage work. asiainsurancereview.com/

By Michael F. Rellosa The insurance penetration rate at about 2 percent of our GDP is arguably the lowest in the Asean region. This has long been known to the industry and some measures have been taken to try and improve this. One of the prime reasons for the low rate is the affordability of Insurance products and the reality that insurance spending is low on the priority list of the populace, with the basics such as food, shelter, clothing, and education taking precedence over insurance. The second main reason is that few people realize the importance and utility of insurance as a risk management tool and as something to rely on after an unfortunate or catastrophic incident has occurred. On top of this, few people also know of the many general or non-life insurance products that they can choose from to answer their specific or particular needs. Finally, there may be a mismatch between the products available vis-à-vis the emerging risks that Filipinos now face. PIRA as the industry association has on its own and in collaboration with multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ); United Nations related groups such as the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEPFI), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR); NGOs such as Earth Security, Arise Philippines; the academe (UP, Ateneo, PUP, La Salle, New Era, Asia Pacific College; local and international media organizations, and international specialist associations such as the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), the International Machinery Insurers' Association (IMIA), Digital Pilipinas, Asean Insurance Council (AIC); government agencies such as the Insurance Commission (IC), the Banko Sentral (BSP), Bureau of Treasury (BoTr) The legislature's upper and lower houses, Department of Agriculture (DA), The Land Bank, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), have launched initiatives addressing the different facets of the problems stated above. To give a bird's eye view of the ongoing projects, allow us to mention a few: PIRA/IIAP/GIZ – working on strengthening disaster resilience and risk mitigation through ecosystem-based planning and adaptation in the Philippines. World Bank/The IC/DoF/PIRA – working on the increase in the facility for disaster risk finance for both the traditional market and the lesser-served segment of the populace through its Philippine Catastrophe Insurance Facilities 1 and 2. World Bank/ADB/DA/and other related government agencies — working on possible ways for the private sector to be able to lend its capacity, and facilities to the Agri-insurance sphere. Earth Security/PIRA – collaborated on a landmark study on the protective value of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. PIRA/AIC – collaborating on strengthening insurers' capability of responding to the insuring public's needs via several interrelated projects, primary of which is the creation of new products, capacity-building and financial/insurance education throughout the Asean. PIRA/Digital Pilipinas – collaborating on projects that while facilitating the teching up of the insurance industry, also create new insurance products, modes of distribution and policy administration that redounds to the benefit of the insuring public. BSP/PIRA and the IIAP – continue to increase their capacity-building activities through conferences, exhibits, summits, seminars, webinars and roundtable discussions. These are just a few ongoing examples or initiatives that PIRA is working on with others who share the same objectives, primary of which is to create a sustainable industry while addressing the most pressing needs of the insuring public via new or improved products, mode of distribution and administration, affordability, risk-appropriate coverages and financial/insurance education. We recognize the fact that an all-of-society and multi-pronged approach is required urgently, if the country is to adequately lift the penetration rate to a level that would allow us a modicum of resiliency. Source: manilatimes.net

PIRA as a supporting organization to the 20th Asia NAT CAT and Climate Change Summit 2024 with the theme "Forging Resilience: Building a Future-Proof Insurance Industry in the Face of Nat Cat Threats" on July 10–11, 2024, in Manila, Philippines, organized by the Asia Insurance Review (AIR) & Middle East Insurance Review (MEIR) is inviting member companies to attend the said conference. PIRA member-companies will enjoy a special rate of USD600. Kindly use the PIRA Registration form GENERAL INQUIRIES: Registration: loga@asiainsurancereview.com Website: https://www.asiainsurancereview.com/Events/Home/Asia/natcat2024