V International Congress "World Views for Life Insurance in Eastern Europe, CIS, and Asia" took place in Moscow
On November 17-18, Moscow-based hotel BALTSCHUK Kempinski hosted V International Congress "World Views for Life Insurance in Eastern Europe, CIS, and Asia" organized by Russian Polis Information Group. The forum was supported by Gold Sponsors SCOR Global Life and HANNOVER Life Re, Silver Sponsors PARTNER Re and FADATA, and Sponsor SWISS Re. The VIP dinner was organized with the support of insurance company ROSSIA. PRIMM Insurance&Pensions Magazine was a traditional Media Partner of the event.
The congress featured speeches of leading life insurance experts, supervisory authorities, senior managers of key Russian and foreign companies, actuaries and consultants.
Presentations of Day 1 were devoted to international regulation of life insurance markets, world views for life insurance, life insurance in CEE and ex-USSR.
Vadim DEMCENKO, editor-in-chief of RUSSIAN Polis Information Group, opened the conference with a welcome speech. Deputy Minister of finance of the Russian Federation, Vera BALAKIREVA, told the audience about key regulatory trends in the country, including legislative initiatives, and presented key market figures. According to her, starting from January 1, 2010, Russia changes approach to forming reserves of life insurance companies.
Director General of the Hungarian Financial Supervision Authority (HFSA) Csaba VARGA gave an overview of the local life market. According to him, in 2008, the total Hungarian life premium reached approximately EUR1 billion. Mr. VARGA also covered in detail development trends in the Hungarian life business in the crisis and post-crisis periods.
Deputy Chairman of the Insurance Supervisory Office of Turkey, Koray ERDOGAN, in his presentation focused on key regulatory trends in his home market, primarily on harmonization of the local insurance legislation with the EU standards. According to his data, in 2008, Turkish L&H premiums reached US$1.314 billion, top five companies accounted for 65% of the figure.
At the World Views session, representatives of key international groups gave their opinions about current and future directions of CEE life market development. According to Gerald MUELLER, CEO of UNIQA International Insurance Holding, the best strategy for an insurer is geographical diversification. Currently, UNIQA is present in 21 markets; most recently, the Austrian company entered the Russian industry where it operates under the RAIFFEISEN Life brand.
Andreas MUSCHIK, managing director of SCOR Global Life Deutschland, in his presentation elaborated on effects of pandemics, a hot topic today, and gave statistical data on the subject.
Andrew D. SMITH, partner, actuarial and insurance solutions at DELOITTE, believes that the crisis has affected structure of life insurance products and rates in the segment. He assumed that in the near future insurance companies will have to review their product development approaches.
In the session Life Insurance in CEE, Cyrille de MONTGOLFIER, CEO AXA CEE, pointed out post-crisis growth areas in the Central/Eastern European markets. According to him, the recession has created opportunities in the life and pensions segment, as clients are now more interested in security of their savings. Key ways to expand in the segment are product diversification and creates ion of a multi-channel distribution model, de Montgolfier believes.
Chairman of the Hungary-based CIG Insurance Group, Bela HORVATH, talked about development of products and sales channels in his home country and shared with the audience development plans for his own company. Within the next 10-15 years, CIG intends to operate in all key markets of the CEE/CIS region and expand to India and China.
Executive director of Slovenian TRIGLAV, Tadej COROLI, in his speech talked about the structure and the legal basis of life insurance markets in ex-Yugoslavia. Oskar LER, deputy chairman of the Kazakh-based State Annuity Company devoted his presentation to the current state of his home industry. Vladislav NEMIROVSKY, independent expert and former CEO of Ukrainian market leader ORANTA, shared with the audience his views of prospects of Ukrainian life insurance.
Alexander ZARETSKY, president of ALICO, in his speech suggested setting up an association of Russian life insurance companies. He opined that such an organization, along with introduction of tax benefits for life insurance clients and higher participation of insurers in the Russian pension system, would boost development of the Russian market. Key local players present at the conference supported ZARETSKY's idea.
Day 2 of the conference was devoted to life insurance products and sales channels. In the session Products and Distribution in Life Insurance, Jens BLOHN, member of the board at HANNOVER Life Re, talked about children insurance, one of the most promising business segment. Paul ERNEST, strategic consultant at MILLIMAN, reviewed life product strategies in times of crisis, Dimitry MALYKH, CEO of Russia-based GENERALI PPF Life Insurance, evaluated current efficiency of various sales channels. The audience learned more about correlation of biometric and financial risks from the presentation made by Alexander IRION, life pricing actuary at PARTNER Re, who spoke in the session Product Management in Life Insurance. Lilia POPOVA, sales and marketing director for Russia and the CIS region, talked about the importance of IT for management of business processes and product development. Alexander LELCHUK, member of the board responsible for life insurance at the Russian Guild of Actuaries, elaborated on cooperation and competition between life insurers and pension funds. In addition, LELCHUK gave the audience a detailed analysis of the Russian pension system. At the conclusion of his speech, he opined that the country needs another pension reform.
Speakers of the final session of the conference talked about sales channels in life insurance. According to Bogomil MARN, Swiss-based independent expert, direct marketing is a unique solution for enhancing the value of a life portfolio. Alexander BONDARENKO, head of sales at ROSGOSSTRAKH-Life, talked about his company's experience of building an agency network in Russia. Kristina BUGANOVA, head of insurance and investments at BSGV, devoted her speech to prospects of Russian bancassurance. Roman IVANOV, international consultant at LIMRA Europe, compared and contrasted life insurance distribution in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
The presentation of Michail KHAZIN, president of consulting company NEOKON, was of great interest to the audience. In his speech, KHAZIN talked about the reasons for the current global crisis, gave a short overview of theory of crises, and presented his outlook for the future of the global economy.
By RUSSIAN Polis Information Group
Published on 23.11.2009
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