Consistent with our continuous efforts of alerting the industry to current market trends and providing a platform for open industry dialogue, Badri Management Consultancy conducted its Annual Insurance Conference UAE 2022 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Dubai on November 24, 2022. The event was attended by around 140 people from 55+ different companies including insurers, reinsurers, the Emirates Insurance Association, brokers, audit firms, consulting firms, Medical TPA’s, and other insurance service providers.

The conference kicked off with the welcome address by Mr. Hatim Maskawala. He was followed on stage by Mr. Hash Piperdy, FIA and Mr. Avnit Anand, who spoke about Digitalization Trends and use cases of technologies like machine learning, block chain and their integration into the UAE insurance space and broader GCC and global markets. Ms. Mariam Irfan Lotia, SHRM-CP then presented on the aftermath effects of the Great Resignation phenomena experienced during the covid period. The next two sessions were on industry trends and high-level benchmarks for Motor and Medical Insurance, presented by Mr. Ali Asghar Bhuriwala, Mr. Zaheer Ahmad and Mr. Mirza Muhammad Ali. This was followed by a session where the audience saw some key financial indicators of UAE insurance market presented by Mr. Navin Ghorawat, covering the mix and movement of underwriting and non-underwriting profits and the ticking time bomb of receivables sitting on insurance companies’ balance sheets. The final presentation was on IFRS17 by Mr. Gautham Subramanian FSA, CERA and how implementation has panned out in KSA and UAE and what are the challenges being faced.

The presentation sessions were followed by a CEO panel moderated by Mr. Hatim, and the panel included Mr. Gautam Datta (Dar Al Takaful), Mr. Jason Light (Emirates Insurance Company) and Mr. Robin Ali (Consilient Consulting / formerly Senior Consultant at Dubai Health Authority). The panelists shared their thoughts on the insurance landscape of UAE, commenting on issues in medical and motor insurance, commercial lines business and the need or lack of a national reinsurance company, the impact of mergers and acquisitions, and other pressing issues such as solvency and capital requirements. The floor was also opened for questions to the panelists and several interesting thoughts and questions were shared by the audience. There were passionate debates about whether we should wait for regulators to take action or should the companies be disciplined enough to put in these changes themselves.

BADRI’s Annual Insurance conferences have been conducted each year since 2015 in UAE and have always been attended in large numbers and garnered a lot of positive feedback. We thank all our employees who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event possible, and our clients and other industry peers for their overwhelming and continuous support in making our event a success year after year