Participants in IAIS conference discuss macroprudential  surveillance


The 18th annual conference of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors kicked off at the COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul, Thursday.

About 500 regulatory officials and chief executives in the insurance industry from 70 nations attended one of the world’s three major financial supervisory meetings, which will run through this Saturday.

Participants included Gabriel Bernardino, chairperson of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, Kevin McCarty, insurance commissioner of the U.S.-based Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and Chantra Purnariksha, secretary-general of the Office of the Thailand-based Insurance Commission.

On the first day of the gathering, they discussed “macroprudential surveillance ― current uses and future applications.”

The 2008 global financial crisis highlighted the importance of macroprudential surveillance, the IAIS said in a statement.

Apart from global coordination to minimize risks in the banking industry, insurance regulators have stepped up to bolster oversight of companies since the financial crisis.

A joint forum is also underway among the three global organizations for banking, securities and insurance supervision ― the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the IAIS.

“Supervisors need to have data and analysis on the firms they supervise, as well as tools and practices to identify the macro prudential trends that are developing within the industry and broader environment,” the IAIS said.

On Friday, a group of panel is scheduled to open the discussion with an overview of the recent developments of new regulatory framework both in the EU and the U.S. and explores what kind of impacts the regulatory changes may have attributed to financial stability issues.

The panel also plans to address the proposed methodologies for identifying “systemically important financial institutions” and possible regulatory framework for SIFIs from both banking and insurance points of view.

This is the first time that Korea hosts the annual conference of the IAIS, which marks the 18th gathering since its establishment in 1994.

The organization represents the insurance regulators of about 190 jurisdictions in 140 countries, constituting 97 percent of the world’s insurance premiums. It also has more than 120 observers.

The objective of the IAIS is to promote effective and globally consistent supervision of the insurance industry to develop and maintain fair, safe and stable insurance markets for the benefit and protection of policyholders.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)