21 Jan 2016|Noida | I2 Moot Court
Insurance Industry Luminaries share insights on Risk Management in Insurance Industry during International Conference at Amity
To deliberate and discuss on several serious issues faced by both the insurance industry and wider society,Amity School of Insurance Banking and Actuarial Sciences (ASIBAS) started Two Day International Conference on “Risk Management in Insurance Industry :Issues, Challenges & Opportunities” at Amity Campus,Sector-125, Noida.
The conference was inaugurated byMr. Yogesh Lohiya, MD & CEO, IFFCOTokio General Insurance Co.Ltd; Mr. Niraj Kumar, GM, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd; Mr. Anuraag Sunder, Director,PriceWaterCooper (PWC); Dr. (Prof.) Gurinder Singh, Addl Group Vice Chancellor,Amity; Dr (Mrs) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradesh and Prof. R R Grover, Advisor, ASIBAS.
Welcoming the guests, Dr (Mrs) Balvinder Shukla said that Insurance Industry is at a pivotal juncture as it grapples with the impact of new technology, new distribution models and changing customer behavior in relation to local, regional and global regulations. Lately, India has faced various unexpected issues which required immediate risk management such as Terrorism Risk Management, Agriculture Risk Management, Cyber Risk Management, Health Risk Management etc. She emphasized that however over a period time, customers’ attitude towards Insurance has become unreliable since the promises made during the purchase of insurance by sales executive is contradicting at time of claim or maturity. She opined that Insurance Industry should have the terms and conditions in layman language which is easily understandable by the customers so that there is no miscommunication at time of claim.
Addressing the gathering, Mr.Yogesh Lohiya said “the bond of risk management in business is yet to be defined. Every organization/ enterprise works to achieve certain set objective(s) and while working towards it, the organization cannot predict about the successful achievement of it or risks involved during the process.”He also briefed the participants about the current situation of Risk Management in India and Globe. Stating the example of Financial Crisis in year 2008, he stressed that globalization has ensured that no risk is confined to particular country, continent or region as various occurring complexities are unexpected today. Mr. Lohiya averred that in present time, individuals are mentally designed to address what went wrong yesterday instead of thinking what might go wrong tomorrow. He suggested that regulation is one way through which risks can be managed in modern society and it is needed to be tightened. He highlighted that the cultural changes in organizations is making risk management a difficult task. The demand of quality, innovations and pricing have created a stiff competition in industry which lead to cost cutting resulting in underperformance of risk management activity that can prove to be very harmful for the organization at the time of crisis.
Sharing his views on the trends of Insurance Industry, Mr. Anuraag Sunder said that PWC began carrying out scenario analysis in year 2010 around the trends reshaping insurance and what the industry would look like by 2020. He further added that Insurers and industry stakeholders have been using the Research “Insurance 2020” by PWC to help them judge the implications of these trends for their particular organizations and determine the strategies needed to respond. He averred that the Insurance Industry has always undergone more upheaval than any other industry. Mr. Sunder expressed his concern that the long-term opportunities for insurers in a world where people now live longer and have more wealth to protect themselves but due to fresh competition, both from within the insurance industry and a raft of new entrants coming from outside, creates a confusion for consumers. He stressed that as per the current issues, challenges and opportunities, most CEOs of Insurance Industry have focused their attention and resources on five priorities namely, the Backbook, Innovation, Growth,Regulation and Culture/Behaviors.
Commending Amity for nurturing Industry Ready professionals, Mr. Niraj Kumar said that Amity has always supported the industry-academia relations by supplying trained manpower to the Insurance Industry. He mentioned that human tendency is to overlook therisk as people believe that no dreadful incident can happen with them. He stressed that not giving due importance to risk management might wreak havoc in times crisis. Mr. Kumar pointed that \different levels of risk come attached with different categories and various theories are established with risk management. He advised the budding professionals to look beyond the theories as effective risk management commences with application of informed common sense.
During the ceremony, eminent personalities of industry were conferred with awards and recognition. Mr. Amit Kalra, Sr. Vice President, Swiss Re and Mr. Debashish Banerjee, Director,Deloitte were awarded “Golden Leadership Award” recognizing their hard work and leadership skills for industry-academia relations. Ms. Vandana Baluni, Fellow,Institute of Actuaries of India was presented with “Certificate of Excellence in Academics”.
During the technical sessions of two day International Conference, there would be deliberations on various topics including “Catastrophe Risk modeling” by Mr. Praveen Sandri, MD,AIR Worldwide India Pvt. Ltd.; “Risk Management Services to Organizations by Insurers & Brokers” by Mr. Radhakrishnan Mahalingam, CPCU Society,U.S.A. (India Chapter); “Financial Risks of Insurance Companies” and “Insurance– Managing Business Risk in Disruptive Technologies Landscape” by Mr. Ashish Makhijani, VP2, EXL Insurance amongst others.