InsurTech needs to be formalised in Bangladesh: Experts

InsurTech needs to be formalised in Bangladesh: Experts

Speakers at a roundtable on Wednesday expressed that the role of insurtech players has to be formalised and boosted to bring about the paradigm shift within the overall insurance sector of Bangladesh.
BASIS organised the roundtable discussion titled “Potential of InsurTech in Advancing Bangladesh’s Economy” at it’s auditorium Karwanbazar in the capital.
Senior officials from the Bangladesh Bank and private banks, non-bank financial institutions, insurance companies and other key stakeholders attended the event. The roundtable discussion was moderated by FidaHaq, Co-Chairman, BASISFinTech Standing Committee.
Masud Rana, Additional Director (BFIU), Bangladesh Bank, stated, “Bangladesh Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) should make necessary amendments to their policies to allow tech companies and insurers to work collaboratively to develop and modify products to provide 4IR based and hassle-free services to customers.”
“To ensure the development of the insurtech industry and to suitably serve end beneficiaries, our roundtable today has proposed a few groundbreaking ideas and suggestions to properly structure and redesign the insurance policies” added Fahim Mashroor, Chairman, BASIS FinTech Standing Committee.
Bangladesh has immense potential in the financial service market, that’s what Fida Haq expressed while touching upon a few key barriers that need to be overcome to bring about the necessary changes required. Participants focused on the insurance gap in Bangladesh of nearly 6 billion USD and a very minimal contribution of the insurance sector - 0.4% to be exact - to the GDP of the country.
Insurance sector in other countries - including the sub-continent - have considerably much more market penetration than Bangladesh.
Thus experts concluded with a few solutions to overcome the dismal situation currently prevailing in the insurtech sector: provision of the insurtech companies with permission to operate as Digital Insurance Agents or to begin with provide an NOC until the insurance act is revised to accommodate them. Secondly, there needs to be significant revision of the existing regulations and mandates as per current market needs.