Insurance startups continue to insist that the Central Insurance company of Iran, the regulator, cannot set up a third-party company for handling affairs related to online insurance services.
In a meeting at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mining and Trade in Tehran, CEOs of startups, officials from the National Entrepreneurship Organization (NEO) and representatives from the Iran Fintech Association (IFA) discussed the controversial issue and the challenges it can and will create for innovative insurance platforms.
Mohammad Reza Ravand, secretary general of NEO, criticized the CII for being oblivious to the valid concerns of startups, saying that this was against the Economy Ministry's support for innovators.
"By creating the central gateway, the CII has failed to take into account the business model of startups demanding they sell insurance at a unified price," Way2pay website quoted him as saying.
Ravand called on the insurance regulator to redo the project in close collaboration with startups.
Earlier this month, Iran Fintech Association published a letter in which the CII was accused of planning to create a monopoly for all the transactions made by online insurance firms and set up a quasi-private company.
"The so-called private company is owned by the CII and its office is in one of the buildings owned by the regulator. The CII has instructed all startups to work only with Amitis without contacting insurance companies or brokers."
The association added that the move is in breach of competition norms and urged the CII to withdraw the controversial decision and create a robust workgroup with experts and market players to be able to make informed judgments.
The CII has denied claims that it plans to create a monopoly in the online insurance market.
In a statement on its website last week, it said the planned role of Amitis Company “is not meant to be for monopolizing the market, rather it would be a hub and gateway for linking applications to insurance company web services."
Demand of Fintechs
Mostafa Naghipourfar, the IFA boss, called on policymakers to take fintech startups more seriously. "While financial startups enjoy strong support around the world, Iranian policymakers have failed to pave the way for the growth of knowledge-based firms and have added to their challenges instead of addressing them."
Insurance startups have rejected claims by the CII regarding the objectives of the central gateway, saying that regulations do not allow state bodies to outsource operations to third-party apps indirectly controlled by them.
Hamed Valipour, the CEO of AZKI startup, said it is not clear why the CII selected Amitis Company when rules are clear cut that the CII must hold public auctions for outsourcing operations.
Reza Farahi, the CEO of Bimeh Bazar Company, noted that Amitis is not directly owned by the CII, but CII employees and retirees are shareholders of the company and it is based in CII premises.
The association criticized CII gateways for major operational flaws. "The gateways developed by the company have failed to take into account the basics of designing digital products and are grossly insecure.”
However, the CII insists it has done nothing wrong. As per the law, the gateway has been developed and run by the regulator. "The gateways are responsible for receiving APIs for policy rates, issuing policies and payments from applications to insurance companies. It is also set to aggregate policyholders' records plus vehicle records and the IDs of car owners."
