Microinsurance

For hundreds of millions of low-income families, insurance and other financial services are too often unknown, not appropriate or beyond reach. Microinsurance combines the core skills and sophistication of insurance and risk management with new learning, research and innovation in order to appropriately and expediently serve low-income populations. Its aim is sustainability; the products and services must provide benefits to the customer in a commercially viable way for the provider.

In early 2007, Zurich established a Global Microinsurance team marshalling Zurich’s insurance expertise and global reach to more rapidly develop microinsurance and microinsurance skills. In February 2007, a Public Private Partnership was signed with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the International Labour Organization. This arrangement directly provided technical assistance to ongoing projects in Bolivia, South Africa and Venezuela, as well as strategic planning support for other business units exploring opportunities to develop microinsurance. Noteworthy projects include product development and distribution projects in the Royal Bafokeng Nation in South Africa, demand research in South Africa and Venezuela, and a review of key learnings in Bolivia.

We partnered this year with governmental and nongovernmental agencies, multilateral organizations and academic institutions, identifying the best and most promising developments in the field. We began active participation in the joint working group on microinsurance established by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. We also began a financial education pilot with Microfinance Opportunities in South Africa, education being a critical component of microinsurance success.

In business units in Latin America, Africa and Greater China, the business of growing microinsurance continued in 2007. New coverage and distribution experiments were launched: property & casualty; health as well as life insurance covers; distribution through remittances as well as sold directly. Some of these were incremental innovations and others were bolder. Zurich recognizes that constant improvement and learning are fundamental elements of this initiative and that through these disciplines, the chances to make quantum leaps improve.