Insurance companies in close collaboration with the regulator are developing innovative insurance packages to build and expand services in the rapidly growing industry, head of the Central Insurance company of Iran (CII) said.
"One of companies is finalizing a ‘Takaful’ insurance package, which should have a considerable impact on the insurance penetration rate in Iran," Majid Behzadpour told the government-owned newspaper ‘Iran’.
It was announced earlier that Amin Re, a leading reinsurer, had applied for permission for starting Iran's first Takaful insurance company in the Persian Gulf island of Kish.
Takaful is a type of Islamic insurance wherein members contribute money to a pooling system to guarantee each other against loss or damage.
Takaful-branded insurance is based on sharia or Islamic religious law and outlines how individuals are responsible to cooperate and protect one another. Takaful policies cover health, life, and general insurance needs.
"Insurance packages for [home] rentals and down payments, liability insurance for managers, gold-based life insurance, insurance cover for equipment and coverage for bicyclists are in the pipeline and will be offered in the near future," Behzadpour added.
The official earlier said that the CII is to launch two platforms to ease road mishap reporting for vehicles. This is being done in collaboration with the Traffic Police and knowledge-based companies, he said.
As the supervisory authority of the insurance sector, the CII is working on new platforms to aggregate performance data of insurance market players, improve transparency in the market and augment fraud detection systems.
According to the official, the CII is also rewriting its reinsurance policies, mainly to reduce the regulator's business operations.
As per regulations, insurers are obliged to cede 15% and 25% of all their non-life and life premium income to the CII for reinsurance needs.
The Gateway Dispute
The official stressed that the CII is determined to launch its controversial gateway for online insurance businesses, saying that the gateway would help the regulator boost the competitive environment critical for the growth of startups. "It would also help improve transparency in online broker operations."
There has been a long dispute between the insurance regulator and online insurers, known as online brokers, mostly over the CII's insistence on creating a central gateway for online insurance operations.
The CII has ordered all startups to work only with the new company, Amitis, without contacting insurance companies or brokers. Startups have protested saying that this is in breach of acceptable competition norms
They are of the opinion that the gateways have failed to consider the basics of designing digital products and are highly insecure.
The CII, however, denies the claims. "This company [Amitis] is not for monopolizing the market. The intention is to set up a hub and gateway for linking applications to insurance company web services."
Earlier it said that based on law the gateways are developed and run by the regulator. "The gateways are responsible for receiving APIs for policy rates, sell policies and pay from applications to insurance companies. It also gathers policyholders' records, their vehicle history and IDs of car owners.”
