A workshop titled “Demystifying eForms and New Financial Regulations” was conducted by Badri Management Consultancy at the Shangri-La Hotel Dubai on February 29, 2016.

The event was attended by 103 professionals from 48 companies covering all facets of the insurance industry spectrum such as representatives from UAE Insurance Authority, insurance / takaful companies, reinsurance / retakaful companies, consultants, service providers and media representatives. Out of the 60 registered insurance companies in UAE, 31 were in attendance.

The event commenced with a welcome note by Mr. Ali Bhuriwala, Executive Director, Badri Consultancy.

This was followed by a Key Note Address by Mr. Maher Ismail Afaneh and Mr. Mark Shapland from the UAE Insurance Authority. The two gentlemen reiterated that the Insurance Authority was committed to enforcement of the New Financial Regulations. The insurance industry was encouraged to start aligning themselves with the requirements during the transition period, and take constructive steps towards full compliance by the end of December 2016, at which reporting period the Regulations would take full effect. The reporting requirements for the year 2015 and the three quarters of 2016 were also briefed. Badri Management Consultancy again extends its gratitude to the Insurance Authority for attending the event, it is an evident testament to their commitment of engaging with the industry to enable a smooth transition into the new regulations.

Mr. Hatim Maskawala, Managing Director, Badri Consultancy, then took the stage and gave a detailed presentation on the contents of the eForms; the 12 main sections split into a total of 71 excel sheets.

Mr. Maskawala explained that these eForms should not be viewed as a burden, but to benefit from the broad level of analysis that could be visualized by using the eForms as a Management Information monitoring tool. The eForms contain all relevant KPI’s that an insurance company’s management should be looking at and can also be used for active solvency management and business planning. The level of detail captured by the eForms would help companies understand their business better in terms of business mix, profitability and loss ratios by line of business, their capital adequacy / solvency position, get a grip on their receivable and payable ageing, be informed of their main expense categories, and analyse their investment performance.The session was highly interactive with question and answers from the attending delegates to the speaker at the conclusion of each section.

Mr. Maskawala summarized that out of the 71 sheets, almost half of them could be automated, while 24% didn’t require inputs as they were completed with information coming from linked sheets. 10% were basic information sheets which were easy to fill. Around 20% of the sheets would require manual input, and that too largely because most companies didn’t have a robust investment management system and these manual sheets were mostly related to recording details of company investments. If companies had a system for their investments, these sheets could also be automated.Mr. Kashif Feroz then stepped up to demonstrate howBADRI had configured an industry leading BI and data analysis tool to fill the eForms automatically. Mr. Feroz practically demonstrated how one of the technical provision sheets, which are the ones that require most detailed level of information, could be filled on the click of a button once proper data connections that are required to be made one time had been programmed at the back end.

The session was followed by a break for refreshments, after which the delegates reconvened for a panel discussion. The panel discussion put the guests from the Insurance Authority on stage, along with some of the leading finance professionals from the industry, where they took questions from the floor on the implications of the eForms, how they were gearing up for it.

The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Ali Bhuriwala, and the revered list of panellists included:

  • Mr. Maher Afaneh: Financial Expert, UAE Insurance Authority
  • Mr. Amr Hindawi: Senior Manager Finance, Insurance House
  • Mr. Hammad Khan: CFO, National Takaful Company Watania
  • Mr. Mark Shapland: Senior Actuary, UAE Insurance Authority
  • Mr. Anay Srivastava: Audit Manager, KPMG UAE
  • Mr. Hatim Maskawala: Managing Director, Badri Management Consultancy

The panellists were posed with some very interesting and challenging questions from the participating delegates that helped the audience to enhance their understanding related to the requirements and benefits of the eForms, the expectation from the point of view of the Insurance Authority, and how the transition into the new Regulations needed to be completed during the alignment period.

The session concluded with presentation of a token of thanks to the panellists and was followed by lunch.