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Regulatory talent needed in Middle East
09 June 2009
Foreign talent is being put to good use in emerging markets such as the Middle East, which lack insurance expertise of their own, said market executives in a media panel at the IIS annual meeting.
Foreign talent is being put to good use in emerging markets such as the Middle East, which lack insurance expertise of their own, said market executives in a media panel at the International Insurance Society's annual meeting in Jordan, Amman.
One area where this exchange of talent is particularly important is in the creation of appropriate regulatory frameworks, which are still developing in the region.
The Arab Forum of Insurance Regulatory Commissions was set up in 2007 to improve the standard of regulation in the region. It now has 16 member countries, according to Bassel Hindawi, director general of the Insurance Commission of Jordan.
But foreign input is still important in educating local authorities about how regulations should be enforced. "It's one thing to adopt the standards but it's another thing to be competent and correctly implement these principles so you have proper supervision," said Hindawi.
According to Patrick Kenny, president and CEO of the International Insurance Society, emerging markets are accustomed to taking lessons from their more developed peers. "As regulatory environments start to develop, they either try and imitate or they try and grab from other more advanced regulatory markets that are more mature," says Kenny. One example is the Dubai International Financial Centre, which has recruited people from the Financial Services Authority in the UK.
Kenny says the biggest challenge to regulators in emerging markets is talent. There are problems associated with "getting people who are trained, getting people who have experience, and getting people who have the judgement to be able to be good regulators", he says.
In some markets - such as Bahrain - this challenge has been addressed by setting up training academies to train people in insurance. But at present, it is still retired Western insurance executives who are looked upon as the best - and most widely available - source of talent to get new markets up and running.
Commenting on Bahrain's use of training academies, Kenny says: "Others in the area are doing the same thing or they're looking to areas like the UK or the US to get training. But right now for many of the markets it's more a matter of importing talent to get up to speed and get on-the-job training to get the process going."