Separate licensing policies for insurtech companies demanded
The entrepreneurs of the insurance sector have demanded the creation of separate policies and licensing guidelines for insurtech companies.
The demand was placed in a roundtable discussion titled "Role of InsureTech in Building Smart Bangladesh" on Thursday.
The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) organised the programme.
In the discussion, it was said that half a hundred insuretech companies have started working in the country to deliver insurance services digitally at the marginal level. But since there is no government policy or regulation on insuretech, the required long-term investment in this sector is not happening. Currently only licensed insurance companies can offer insurance services. But new generation insuretech and fintech companies are playing an important role in bringing new technology-based innovative insurance services to the market based on artificial intelligence (AI), IOT, data-science based in many countries around us.
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According to the meeting, there has been a lot of venture capital investment in the insuretech sector in India, China, Indonesia and many other developing countries. But due to the lack of separate legal recognition of insuretech companies in our country, there is not enough investment in this sector. Speakers at the round table meeting said that only less than 5% of the population in Bangladesh is covered by insurance services. In neighboring countries this rate is above 20-30%, as technology-based insuretech companies are leading the way in creating the insurance market.
Mohammad Jainul Bari, Chairman of the Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority (IDRA) was present as the chief guest on the occasion.
Dr Hasina Sheikh, Chairman of Banking and Insurance Department of Dhaka University, presented the keynote in the discussion.
The roundtable discussion was moderated by Fida Haq, Co-Chairman, BASIS FinTech Standing Committee, and Co-founder and CEO, adorsho praniSheba Limited
In addition to the top officials of various insurance companies, the founders of 20 leading insuretech companies of the country were present in the event.
