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Insurers are taking different approaches to adopt Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures into their strategies.

What are the steps that the industry has taken in adopting these measures and how do reinsurance leaders play a role?

Bringing Consumers Along on The Transition Path
In industries such as the burning of thermal coal, insurers typically distinguish between "writing new business," which can happen sooner, and "ceasing to renew existing business," which may take a little longer. Both regulators and insurers concur that in the case of these businesses, insurers must make sure that they in some way take their consumers along and develop a transition path with them. This plan may also entail giving clients advice on how to raise their ESG profile.

Developing New Standards
By developing standards for screening and assessing risks according to an ESG rating, insurers and reinsurers have improved their own underwriting portfolio. Subsequently, there is also an aim to reduce risks with a negative ESG profile and to strengthen those with a more favourable profile, such as risks associated with renewable energy.

Phasing Out Assets with Poor ESG
In terms of assets, insurers and reinsurers follow a similar strategy – first, analysing their own portfolio based on a set of ESG criteria and then gradually phase out assets with a poor ESG profile while increasing investments in assets with a better profile.

Impact On the Regional Markets
As announced by international insurers and reinsurers, changing carbon footprint and setting goals for carbon neutrality have an impact on the ASEAN insurance markets as well. While subsidiaries of international insurers must adhere to the group’s standards on carbon emissions, national and regional insurers have also managed their footprint by setting targets and defining roadmaps to achieve these goals.

As the world evolves, technology has found its significant role in many industries, insurance being one of them. The difficulties society faces in the areas of the environment, society, and government are becoming more complicated. The insurance business must participate in tackling these difficulties as a manager of risk and cannot simply stand by.

Reinsurers such as Malaysian Re play a key role in shaping the industry as they help to stabilize insurers should there be any loss experience by distributing specific risks. Additionally, MNRB, as the parent company of Malaysian Re, boasts an extensive business portfolio across Asia and the Middle East. The institution plays a key role in managing sustainability risks and managing ESG issues, as they help distribute particular risks among insurers by helping them stabilise in the event of a loss. Visit the MNRB website https://www.mnrb.com.my/ to learn more about other MNRB businesses related reinsurance, retakaful, retail takaful and more.

There is an estimation of 324 Takaful operators around the world. In terms of direct takaful, Saudi Arabia has the largest General Takaful market while Malaysia has the most extensive Family Takaful market. Malaysia is considered one of the main retakaful markets in Southeast Asia, along with Indonesia and Brunei.

Growth of the Global Takaful Market

The global takaful sector is one of the segments of the insurance market that is expanding the fastest, with an average annual growth rate of between 15-20%. Following the remarkable expansion of the Islamic financial system, particularly in the Islamic banking industry and Islamic capital market, there is an increasing demand for takaful products on a global scale.

The expansion of both sectors helped the takaful and retakaful industries to grow healthily. For instance, there is a logical demand for mortgage protection takaful covers given the significant expansion of Islamic financing and mortgages.

Growth Of Malaysia’s Takaful Market

The Malaysia Takaful Association reports that the family takaful business in Malaysia has experienced double-digit growth. In the nine months that ended on September 30, 2020, the value of family takaful protection climbed 14% to RM364.2 billion thanks to RM4.84 billion in new business contributions, an increase of 3.2% from the same time in 2019.

Over the years, the demand for Family Takaful has grown significantly. When compared to the same period in 2019, the general takaful business had a respectable gain of 3.6%, with total gross contributions of RM2.57 billion as opposed to RM2.48 billion. With a share of 65.3%, motor takaful outlasted the largest business category. With a gross contribution of RM450 million, or a little rise of 3.2%, fire takaful maintained its place as the second-largest business class.

Limitations faced by the Retakaful and Retrotakaful Market

However, there is only a small amount of retrotakaful capability accessible at this point in development. Due to a lack of supply in the market, takaful operators on the Shariah Advisory Board are expected to permit retakaful/retrotakaful capacity to be supplied from conventional players on the basis of dharura (utmost necessity).

Malaysian Re, through its Malaysian Re Retakaful Division (MRRD), is licensed by the Ministry of Finance to carry on both life and general retakaful activity. By extending the Shariah-compliant supply chain to domestic and overseas takaful operators, it was established to supplement Malaysian Re's traditional reinsurance operations. It makes use of Malaysian Re's best underwriting procedures, which include appropriate pricing models and tools, sound rating disciplines, and actuarial evaluations. For more information, visit https://www.malaysian-re.com.my/our-solutions/retakaful.