The 21st Gulf Insurance Forum, held in Dubai last month, concluded with the issuance of 10 core recommendations and shared strategic insights regarding GCC-wide insurance integration.
The 10 key recommendations are:
1. AI integration strategies: Insurers must adopt clear strategies to integrate AI to improve risk assessment, boost operational efficiency, and support decision-making.
2. Alternative risk transfer: Encourage the development of alternative risk transfer solutions utilising capital markets (such as catastrophe bonds and ILS) to manage emerging systemic risks.
3. Cyber & AI risk management: Enhance the sector’s resilience against cyber risks and AI-related threats through stricter underwriting discipline, clear policy phrasing, and new coverage for technological liabilities.
4. RegTech adoption: Urge regulatory bodies to adopt AI-powered supervisory technologies to automate reporting, monitoring, and early warning systems.
5. Infrastructure & data quality: Prioritise investments in modern technological infrastructure, data quality, system integration, and workforce upskilling while retaining human oversight.
6. Unified operations: Accelerate the transition from fragmented traditional systems to integrated, AI-supported processes across underwriting, claims, reinsurance, and compliance.
7. Predictive analytics for risk mitigation: Shift the industry's traditional role from merely transferring risk to actively managing and mitigating it using predictive analytics and external data.
8. AI governance frameworks: Establish proper AI governance frameworks ensuring data protection, transparency, fairness, model reliability, and human accountability.
9. Innovative insurance products: Translate technological advancements into practical applications, closing protection gaps and catering to changing business and societal needs.
10. Enterprise risk management: Strengthen corporate governance, solvency self-assessments, and stress testing within strategic planning to counter climate, cyber and emerging risks.
Strategic GCC insurance cooperation
Mr Khalid Mohammed Al Badi, Chairman of the Emirates Insurance Federation and Gulf Insurance Federation, emphasised that given the developments and changes currently unfolding in the global insurance sector, more needs to be done to advance cooperation and coordination among GCC insurers and leverage their collective capabilities to underwrite increasingly complex risks.
Reflecting the need for greater integration, discussions during the two-day annual Forum focussed on the potential for establishing an insurance bloc among the GCC states, a move that could lead to a unified, large-scale insurance market. The proposal includes reviving the idea of creating a new, pan-Gulf insurance company with participation from all GCC member states. Mr Al Badi said, “While previous attempts to establish such an entity did not succeed, the circumstances have since evolved, particularly in light of the diverse and rapid changes currently unfolding both within the region and globally.”
He also emphasised the need for a concerted effort to harmonise legislation and regulations within the Gulf insurance sector, a topic also underscored by previous Forums. He further highlighted the importance of strengthening partnerships among insurance companies across the GCC states.
The region has recently witnessed a surge in M&As, driven by companies’ efforts to bolster their competitive standing. Mr Al Badi encouraged the continuation of this trend to create larger entities capable of increasing retention capacity, enhancing global competitiveness, expanding operational scope and coverage, and entering new markets.
He anticipates that the current momentum in the Gulf insurance sector will persist in the coming period, despite regional developments. “This outlook is supported by sustained population growth, the implementation of mandatory insurance requirements, and the inherent economic strength of the GCC states, which have consistently demonstrated their resilience in overcoming crises.”
The Forum, held on 26 and 27 October, was organised by the Emirates Insurance Federation and the Gulf Insurance Federation, with the theme “Redefining Insurability: Risk, Capital and Trust in a Systemic World”. It attracted 200 chief executives and insurance and reinsurance experts from 25 Arab and foreign countries.