Muscat: Represented by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Sultanate of Oman is hosting the 3rd joint regional symposium titled “Expanding Insurance in the Middle East and North Africa: Key Challenges and Market Development Opportunities”. The two-day event, which kicked off in Muscat today, is being held in cooperation with the Supervisory Authority of Insurance and Social Welfare of the Kingdom of Morocco, with the participation of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

According to Oman News Agency, the symposium is attended by representatives of regulatory bodies, insurance companies, and industry experts from Arab states and countries in the region. The event serves as a platform for dialogue on enhancing regional cooperation, exchanging expertise, addressing challenges, and exploring opportunities linked with developments in insurance markets, amid ongoing economic and technological developments.

The programme of the first day of the symposium included sessions and specialized workshops on upgrading the regulatory framework of insurance to keep pace with global updates. It also elaborated on the role of actuaries in enhancing financial stability, means of exploring opportunities for digital innovation and its use to drive the growth of the insurance sector, ways of developing oversight of market behaviour, and options for expanding insurance cover to reach broader segments.

The agenda further reviewed strategies for enhancing sustainability and developing institutional and professional capacities to ensure the steady growth of the insurance sector. The second day of the symposium will address a number of emerging issues, most notably ‘sustainable insurance as a means of addressing environmental and social risks’, the ‘management and transfer of risks’, ‘enhancing market behaviour to help protect customer rights’, and ‘establishing the principles of transparency in insurance transactions’.

This symposium is in pursuance of cooperation between the FSA and its counterpart in the Kingdom of Morocco. In 2022, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing the insurance sector’s supervision and oversight capabilities and enhancing its efficiency.