Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) co-hosted the third edition of the Dubai World Insurance Congress (DWIC) to discuss the opportunities in the evolving insurance and reinsurance sectors.

The two-day conference, which kicked off on February 27, was held in partnership with Global Reinsurance and DIFC Insurance Association and brought together more than 700 global industry experts from over 45 countries.

The attendees also discussed critical issues facing the industry today, such as the impact of China’s Belt & Road Initiative, opportunities for reinsurance hubs and the rising importance of technology in the global reinsurance landscape.

As the global insurance and reinsurance industries continue to adapt to change and become more receptive to the impact of InsurTech, a recent survey, conducted by Global Reinsurance, polled 50 senior reinsurance leaders to identify the most important factors in determining a successful reinsurance hub. The survey showed that a conducive regulatory framework, ease of business, investment in technology and the ability to transact business across borders are of vital importance to the success of reinsurance centres such as Dubai, London and Singapore. The survey also revealed that Dubai and London have demonstrated the greatest levels of innovation and ability to adapt over the past year.

Arif Amiri, chief executive officer of DIFC Authority, said: “There is a growing need for the global reinsurance industry to embrace innovation, technology and digitisation. To address this, DIFC has made a significant investment towards building a collaborative workspace, introducing fit-for-purpose laws and regulations and nurturing early-stage start-ups through dedicated accelerator programmes over the last two years. It’s been a pleasure to see a number of our InsurTech graduates using DWIC 2019 as a platform to showcase their concepts and identify opportunities for collaboration with other members of the insurance community.

“Now in its third year, DWIC is the largest congregation of international insurance and reinsurance professionals in the Middle East and North Africa. It has cemented Dubai’s position as the ideal hub for industry leaders to discuss and embrace the necessary business models and regulatory frameworks that drive growth in the industry,” he said.

The latest edition of DWIC, which concluded on February 28, featured leading global experts such as David Watson, chief executive officer of International Re, AXA XL; James Vickers, chairman of Willis Re International; Jindong Xu of the Insurance Association of China and Mohammad Al Hawari, executive board member and managing director of Takaful Emarat.   

Attendees participated in an array of engaging panel discussions and workshops that addressed global perspectives on reinsurance growth, regional health insurance sectors, finding new audiences for Takaful and building a framework to offer Shariah-compliant commercial insurance products.

In an effort to address the evolving needs of InsurTech innovators, the conference also featured a panel discussion on key aspects that encourage incumbent and disruptive firms to work side-by-side on creating innovative solutions for region-specific challenges.

Through its various strategic initiatives, DIFC is constantly exploring opportunities to nurture an integrated ecosystem where FinTech, venture capital and incumbent financial firms can grow and thrive collectively. The centre has made remarkable progress in broadening its focus beyond FinTech to cover the emerging trends of InsurTech, RegTech and Islamic FinTech. The latest edition of DWIC saw the participation of Virtual-I, Addenda, BankBuddy, and BTO, four InsurTech firms from the 2018 cohort of the FinTech Hive at DIFC accelerator programme. - TradeArabia News Service