The insurance sector contributes to the Tunisian economy, but the law that regulates the sector is still rudimentary and requires substantive reform, according to Mr Hafedh Gharbi, President of the General Insurance Committee (CGA), the supervisory and control authority of the insurance sector.
“The regulatory framework is archaic, and within the CGA, we are examining ways to reform it to better fit the life insurance sector and all other branches,” said Mr Gharbi speaking at a conference in October to mark the 30th anniversary of the life insurer Assurance Hayatt.
To boost the development of the insurance sector and especially the life segment, a range of benefits must be promoted, he said. The sector must also take into account exogenous and endogenous threats and risks, reported Kapitalis, citing the regulatory official.
He said that in order to better sell life insurance services, life insurers need to rally together to make the government more aware of the contributions of life insurance. For instance, insurers can support social insurance funds, which are currently facing great difficulties.
Another speaker, Mr Kamel Midani, representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said that negotiations are being carried out with various stakeholders to reform the social security system.
He pointed to pressure on the system arising from longer life expectancy, pension payments of up to 90% of salaries, the increase in the number of pensioners over the years and the increase in the number of early retirement before the legal age. Social security reform has become an urgent task which the government is currently working on.
Mr Mehdi Ben Brahem, an academic, said that pension reform, and in particular the extension of the retirement age, is blocked because of both economic and political issues. In reality, only 60% to 65% of workers contribute to social security funds. M