Basic concepts about inclusive insurance and microinsurance, global best practices and the place of microinsurance in the Solvency II regime are just a few topics analyzed today at the "Inclusive Insurance and Microinsurance" Conference taking place in Ljubljana.

The conference, organized by Institute for Strategic Solutions, brings together a select community of international experts. XPRIMM supports the event as Regional Partner, while the Slovenian Insurance Supervision Agency is the conference's knowledge partner. GENERALI, the largest foreign insurance company in Slovenia, is the event's exclusive sponsor.

Sergej SIMONITI, Director, AZN-Slovenian Insurance Agency

• Classical insurance products are too expensive for certain segments of the population so we need to think what the supervisors and the industry can do to tackle these problems. 
• This is how the idea came to build a dedicated forum to inclusive insurance. It is a win win win situation: the industry needs organic growth, there is benefit for governments and tax-payers and, of course, a benefit for policy holders that will get the minimum cover that they require.

Gorazd RENCELJ, State Secretary, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia

• New business models are making their way in the financial industry - so change is a constant. Inclusion is also a very important subject for policy makers throughout the world. 
• From a policy makers perspective, inclusive insurance might be a very powerful tool for the society. So far the experience has been limited to the developing world but it will find its way into other parts of the world.
• The current legislative framework in Slovenia does not include provisions regarding inclusive insurance. But financial education has to complement changes in the legislation in order to help enhance access to insurance. We also need to look at the challenges that these changes will bring.

Peter BRAUMUELLER, Director of Insurance Supervision, FMA-Financial Markets Authority, Austria

• IAIS launched the Access to Insurance Initiative some time ago; its original time frame has now been extended.
• A large number of individuals do not have insurance. Many institutions have addressed this issues so far. The increased use of modern information technologies offers a new potential for insurance but this can only have a positive impact if the regulatory framework allows this to happen. This is particularly challenging.
• We need to find a balanced regulatory framework for inclusive insurance. This is not a topic of interest of Africa, Asia or other regions. We see the huge potential in the CEE and the Transcaucasian region.
• People that do not have basic insurance are not always only very poor people but also people that can afford coverage but rely on public support, are not aware of risk or do not understand the benefits of an insurance, lacking financial literacy.
• This concept may benefit many people from many regions around the world.

Andrea KEENAN, Senior Managing Director, AM Best & Vice-Chair of the MicroInsurance Network

• Micro insurance offers simple products to low-income customers. The alternatives to insurance for this population is family/friends, savings or selling assets. The target demographic is people that have an income between 1.25-4 USD/day.
• Scale is everything in a micro insurance program. The difference from classical insurance is that in micro insurance we want to have high claims - which are to be paid rapidly so that word gets around. On the other hand we want to lower fixed costs and distribution costs as much as possible.
• Processing claims has to be quick and predictable; policies have to be standardized; underwriting has to be done in groups.
  

Hannah GRANT, A2ii - Access 2 Insurance Initiative

• Inclusive insurance is a broad term that includes insurance aimed at excluded or underserved markets (rather than just the poor - as in the case of micro insurance)
• Majority of world population falls within the scope of microinsurance 
• The low-income consumer is different from the traditional insurance consumer
• Micro insurance is not just a scaled-down version of traditional insurance, as dedicated products need to be developed
• Common policy objectives are: increasing insurance penetration among the low-income; increase private sector participation in inclusive insurance and to protect consumers.
• Commercial insurers are the majority of micro insurance providers in the world.
• Globally microinsurance is the biggest are of growth and presents a huge opportunity to CEE and Transcaucasian region

Gregor PILGRAM, CFO, GENERALI CEE Holding

• The industry struggles with the development of micro insurance in CEE, Russia and Transcaucasian regions 
• We need a sizeable market behind and a niche in order for this concept to work
• The situation in our region is different than in other regions (e.g. India etc.) as there are people than can afford to buy insurance coverage but decide that they do not want it.
  

Catherine HOCK, Vice-President, ICMIF-International Relations International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation

• The challenges that microinsurance is facing are of regulatory, financial and technical nature
• Mutuals allow for a more diverse insurance landscape

Constantinos HADJIGEORGIOU, Group Corporate Service Officer, TRUST Re

• The potential market for microinsurance is some 2.5 billion persons
• Financial literacy is something that we need to consider 
• Someone has to take the initiative and connect the dots but everything else can be done within the existing regulatory framework
• We need to learn how to insure the masses

Klime POPOSKI, President, Insurance Supervision Agency, Macedonia

• There is potential for microinsurance in the region but also plenty of opportunities and challenges
• We need mass, simple and easy to understand products
• We have put together a comparative study between SEE and Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Philippines in relation to microinsurance with very interesting results