The Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTRF) of the Ministry of Finance has contacted financial institutions, including insurance companies and banks, about complying with regulations covering anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
Bahrain-based Arab Insurance Group (Arig) has announced that its appeal to recover amounts due from Saudi Arabian insurer, Al-Rajhi Company for Cooperative Insurance (Al Rajhi Takaful), has been successful in the final hearing before the Committee of Appeal of the Insurance Disputes and Violations Committee (IDVC) in Riyadh.
The Insurance Federation of Egypt (IFE) is keen to provide specialised technical information that serves the insurance sector, especially in branches for which there is a dearth of data.
Insurance companies are seeking to increase their paid-up capital under pressure from credit rating agencies and reinsurers concerned about the impact of the decline in the value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar.
Paris-headquartered Societe Generale (SG), the French financial services giant, has announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its Moroccan subsidiary to financial group Saham, for EUR745m ($793m).
Qatar’s listed insurance companies posted a combined net loss of QAR360m ($99m) for the financial year ended 31 December 2023, according to annual financial statements lodged by the companies with the Qatar Stock Exchange.
Listed insurance companies in the Saudi market saw stellar growth in 2023, as their combined profits soared to SAR3.3bn ($894m), compared to profits of less than SAR320m in 2022.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has announced that the government’s decision to localise all jobs related to the sales of insurance products had taken effect from 15 April.
Compulsory motor third-party liability insurance business, also referred to as traffic insurance in Türkiye, chalked up a technical loss of TRY13.7bn ($424m), after offsetting investment income, in 2023.
The insurance market in Türkiye generated a total premium income of TRY483bn ($15.1bn) in 2023, an increase of 105% compared to 2022, said Insurance Association of Türkiye (TSB) president Ugur Gulen.
Global
With an unprecedented ‘super-cycle’ of elections in 2024, almost half the world’s populations will go to the polls before the year is out. According to a new report from Allianz Commercial, security is a concern in many territories, not only from the threat of localised unrest but because of the wider-reaching consequences of electoral outcomes on foreign policy, trade relations and supply chains.
AM Best is maintaining its outlook for the global nonlife reinsurance segment at Stable, owing primarily to the improved property reinsurance margins, driven by increased rates and attachment points in 2023, which are not anticipated to soften through the 2024 cycle; more robust investment income, driven primarily by higher new money yields on fixed-income instruments; reinsurance capital, estimated to have improved materially at year-end 2023, aided by strong underwriting results and partially countered by capital distributions to investors; and more orderly renewal cycles.
As the world races to meet global climate targets, industries worldwide are under increasing pressure to adopt new technologies and processes to expedite their decarbonisation efforts.
Last month, PERILS, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, released the PERILS Industry Exposure Database (IED) 2024 which includes detailed sums insured exposed to natural perils of $111tn of property assets.
Takaful
Takaful is gaining ground in Algeria with expectations to increase its share of the insurance market thanks to growing demand boosted by the benefits introduced by the 2024 finance law.
Sukoon Insurance Company (Sukoon) has announced that it had received acceptances for 2,411,030 shares which represent 1.57% of the shares of Arabian Scandinavian Insurance Company - Takaful (ASCANA).
Islamic Arab Insurance Company, listed as SALAMA on the Dubai Financial Market, posted a net loss of AED139.33m ($37.94m) for the 2023 financial year, compared to a net profit after tax of AED35.44m.