IslamicFinance.de

In the world of Islamic insurance, the three great pillars of the market are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Zurich Financial Services, plans on establishing a takaful presence in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, according to Geoff Riddell, Zurich's chairman of global corporation and chief executive officer of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

"We certainly believe we need to be entering takaful. We're looking at different ways of doing it," Riddell told BestWire at the 2010 Risk and Insurance Management Society conference in Boston. "We're looking at how we would enter Saudi Arabia. We're looking at how do we get a license in Malaysia. We will continue to develop our capabilities and understanding of takaful, and we think it will be a significant part of these markets."

Zurich recently expanded its global life insurance team to focus on expanding its Asia-Pacific life business. While Zurich has had a "good life operation" in Hong Kong and a "nice little" niche business in Japan for sometime, Riddell said the company's focus will be on Indonesia and Malaysia.

Alhaji Teslim Sanusi is the President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), the umbrella body for all brokers in Nigeria. In this interview, he bars his mind on the challenges and prospects of insurance in Nigeria and specifically in the North.

Following the poor growth of insurance in the North, is the NCRIB partnering insurance companies to help deepen the market?
The NCRIB is deeply concerned with the poor acceptance of Insurance generally in Nigeria and more so in the North and is prepared to facilitate its better acceptance. Among other things, the Council is already fortifying its Northern Area Committee to take up the challenges of promoting insurance growth in the region. The Area Committee has designed strategies for propagating insurance in the region. Aside from the aggressive public awareness crusade the Area Committee is to be used as the arrow heads of the corporate awareness and publicity campaign of the Council.

Would you say, the marketing drive of insurance companies in the north is good enough compared to the efforts put in the south?

The third edition of Ernst & Young’s World Takaful Report 2010: Managing performance in a recovery, unveiled at the 5th Annual World Takaful Conference of 2010, confirms that global Takaful industry is well on course to surpass US$8.8 billion in contributions in 2010. Contributions grew by 29% in 2008 to reach US$5.3 billion. Takaful refers to Shari’a-compliant cooperative insurance.

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are biggest markets
Saudi Arabia, with contributions totalling US$2.9 billion in 2008, and Malaysia with US$900 million are the top two takaful markets in the world. Sudan is the most significant market outside of the GCC and SE Asia, with contributions totalling US$280 million in 2008.

UAE and Indonesia are fastest growing markets
Global compound annual growth rate for takaful for the period 2005 - 2008 has been 39%; the Levant region and Africa grew at 18%, the Indian Subcontinent at 135%, SE Asia at 28% and the GCC at 45%. The UAE was the fastest growing takaful market in the world with a compound annual growth rate of 135% from 2005-2008 while Indonesia rose quickest in SE Asia at 35%.

Generating profitability remains a challenge

The IFSB said the National Bank of Tajikistan, Prudential Hong Kong, along with Malaysia-based OCBC Al Amin Bank and the Islamic reinsurance unit of Germany's Munich Re will join as "observer" members,

Satellite operator Yahsat has announced that it has secured the first Shariah-compliant insurance policy for space operations.

Press Release

Today sees the launch of a new Journal on Islamic finance from dedicated Islamic finance media entity Yasaar Media.

The Journal, called So Far – the Journal of Strategic Thinking in Islamic Finance, is written and edited by members of an Islamic finance Think Tank and is modelled on traditional academic journals. The difference with So Far is that the members of the Think Tank are predominantly practitioners rather than academics.
Member of the Think Tank are drawn from the ranks of committed Islamic finance professionals around the world and range from the Gulf and the Far East to the USA and Europe.

Each issue of So Far is dedicated to a single topic of core importance to the Islamic finance industry – and the launch issue looks at the thorny issue of the problems facing the Sukuk market. Unlike many other journals So Far is distributed free in PDF format and is available from a variety of sources including Yasaar Media thus guaranteeing maximum readership and exposure.

The opening Keynote Plenary session at The 5th Annual World Takaful Conference (WTC 2010) will feature take-home strategies by leading industry decision makers, testimony of the overall significance of the forum in shaping the future of the global Takaful industry.

IslamicFinance.de has created a fanpage on Facebook - for all the users wishing to follow the news abstracts on the Facebook platform. Please join and enjoy!