Summit set to discuss insurance issues

For more than a decade now, Reynaldo De Dios, publisher and editor-in-chief of Insurance Philippines Magazine, organizes one of the biggest industry events in the country.

This year, insurance practitioners, leaders and business think-tanks alike gather for the 11th Philippine General Insurance Summit on April 23, 2014 at the InterContinental Hotel, Makati with the theme: Increasing Urbanization, Cybercrimes and Natural Disasters, Weather/Climate Issues.

An upward trend on demographics, unabated urbanization and advancing technology coupled with an increase of natural disasters each passing year has put a heavy strain on global insurance and reinsurance markets.

In this day and age, technology has been both a boon and a bane. The flow of information from every corner of the globe has never been easier, thanks to the help of the Internet.

However, the convenience of having information at the tip of your fingertips should be taken with a grain of salt. A study by Munich Re enumerated some of the common exposures faced by netizens: virus infections, Internet fraud, industrial espionage, misuse of personal data, identity theft and copyright infringements to name a few.

On an industrial point of view, cybercrimes can put even the most powerful corporations down at their news with just a click of a mouse.

While there are insurance solutions available to recover losses due to cyber attacks, it is also important that business and individuals adopt risk management measures to prevent and curtail the attacks of cyber criminals.

Beyond technology, there are more palpable risks felt across the world—natural disasters frequent each country at an unprecedented scale, leaving significant loss of lives and damage to property in its wake.

The Philippines alone, experienced dark days last year when Super Typhoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan) made landfall and pummelled key urban centres in the Visayas.

If unabated, urbanization can bring about significant risks worldwide that can be felt to the grassroots level. The growth of urban centers and increasing population especially in Asia place heavy stress on local water supply, sanitation, flood control and public control systems; these population sojourns from the provinces to urban centers cannot be avoided. The United Nations forecasted that 63 billion or 68 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050.

These urban centers would be strategically located at coastal areas, however, these cities would be the ones most exposed to typhoons and storm surges. It is a sad reality that some of these developments are made unscrupulously. Thus, posing a risk to life, limb and property—risks that both life and non-life insurers face.

The speakers for the event and the topics that they would discuss are: Update on the Philippine General Insurance Market, Emmanuel Que (chair, Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association Inc.); Update on the Philippine Reinsurance Market, Roberto Crisol (president and CEO, National Reinsurance Corporation of the Philippines); Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Management, Arturo Corpuz (SVP, Ayala Land Inc.); Risks of Increasing Urbanization and Impact on the Insurance Industry, Sherwin Parungao (Catastrophe Analyst, Aon Benfield Asia Pte. Ltd.); Climate Change and Food Security, Derisking Agriculture, Peter Book (head of Agriculture for the Asia Pacific, Guy Carpenter); The Role of Rating Agencies in the Changing Global Insurance Environment, Susana Lam (managing director, A.M. Best Asia-Pacific Ltd.); Risk Mitigating and Managing Data Breaches that Lead to Cybercrimes, Dr. Mike Gault (CEO and founder, Guardtime); Jumping the Talent Curve: Insurance Industry Challenges and Initiatives, Julien Parasie (head of the Insurance Desk, Mazars Asia Pacific); How Size Stabilizes the Balance Sheet, Adi-Richard Hazan (executive chair, Catalytics Asia, Singapore); Disaster Preparedness Vis-a-vis Natural Perils, Rachel Yin (consultant, International Codes and Standards Group, FM Global); Lloyd’s Risk Index—How Businesses in Asia Pacific View Risk, Kent Chaplin (managing director, Lloyd’s Asia).