The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has formed a committee to develop a unified model for the bylaws of insurance pools, according to a statement posted by the regulator on the Facebook account of the Egyptian Cabinet Presidency.
The objective of the committee is to update the rules for the governance and management of insurance pools so that they align with the Unified Insurance Law, taking into account the technical and specialised nature of the activity of each pool.
The FRA has decided that Dr Tariq Saif, a Vice President of the Authority, is the head of the committee, with Counselor Reda Abdel-Moati, the Senior Advisor to the President of the Authority, as his deputy. The other members of the panel are FRA officials. The Chairman of the committee may invite whomever he deems appropriate from among specialists and experts to attend its meetings and assist in tasks without their having a vote in the deliberations.
The FRA decision defines 11 functions for the committee, most notably: studying and analysing the basic systems in place in existing insurance pools, identifying similarities and differences between them, determining the topics that should be unified at the pool level, and preparing guiding rules and controls related to governance, management, disclosure, and conflict of interest.
The committee will establish controls governing pool membership and members’ rights and obligations, as well as frameworks for forming general assemblies and boards of directors, their responsibilities, and requirements for holding positions. It will also set controls for financial systems, investment management, internal control, and risk management.
The committee’s responsibilities also include defining the framework of specialised committees within the pools and their responsibilities, particularly the audit, risk and investment committees, setting rules for dispute resolution and amending the pools’ bylaws, preparing a draft of the unified model bylaws, preparing the draft regulatory decisions necessary to adopt and implement the unified model, as well as proposing an appropriate mechanism and timeframe for existing insurance pools to comply with the unified model.
There are five insurance pools currently active in the Egyptian market, namely:
- Egyptian Pool for Nuclear Risk Insurance,
- Pool for Insurance Against Railway and Metro Accident Risks,
- Egyptian Pool for Civil Liability Insurance for Construction Risks,
- Compulsory Insurance Pool for Civil Liability Arising from Motor Vehicle Accidents, and
- Egyptian Pool for Overseas Travel Insurance.