From the Desk of the Secretary General – May 2024

By Jonathan Dixon

Effective stakeholder engagement is integral to the IAIS successfully fulfilling its role as the global standard setter for the insurance sector.

In this context, in recent years we have been striving to enhance our engagement with stakeholders who bring a “consumer voice” to our work. This includes consumer advocacy organisations, certain think tanks and academics.

We recognise the importance of receiving views and inputs from a diverse range of stakeholders and understand that consumer-representing stakeholders often have fewer financial and time resources at their disposal to expend on IAIS engagement than the insurance industry.

These considerations led us to design a structured consumer voice engagement programme, involving approximately 15 consumer groups from around the world. They participate in three dedicated sessions per year, meeting virtually with members of the IAIS Secretariat, members of IAIS subcommittees working on relevant topics and the leadership of the IAIS in the form of a selection of IAIS Chairs, Vice Chairs and strategic theme Champions.

Insight into the consumer perspective is of inherent importance to the IAIS’ work. It is crucial not only for our members with supervisory mandates for market conduct, consumer protection, market development and financial inclusion, but also for all supervisors because consumer trust is central to the continued relevance and financial stability of the insurance sector.

Now in its second year, the consumer voice engagement programme has launched successfully and already demonstrates its benefits in drawing prominence within the IAIS to market conduct and consumer issues. The insights gained have helped to inform recent and in-progress reports and application papers, development of the IAIS’ next Strategic Plan, and discussions on jurisdictional observations and supervisory responses amongst supervisors at subcommittee level.

Through the engagements, we have canvassed consumer groups’ insights on the implications for consumers from insurers’ use of artificial intelligence, consumer behaviours and experiences related to natural catastrophe protection gaps, the needs of consumers with diverse characteristics or experiencing vulnerability, and the limitations of sales disclosure to consumers.

Our commitment to the consumer voice coalesces with our increasing focus on whether insurance products and services are truly meeting societal needs, and the role insurance supervisors can play in this regard. I thank all the consumer group participants who provide significant value to us through their involvement.

I also encourage consumer groups to join the discussions at our Annual Conference (your registration fees are waived) and respond to our public consultations. These forums provide a platform to publicly emphasise and elevate the consumer perspective.