Insurance regulator goes digital
The move to do away with manual submission of financial statements from insurance firms to the regulator began Wednesday morning with introduction of Electronic Regulatory System (ERS).
The web-based system is an initiative by Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) that will see licensed industry players complete and submit all required returns online.
“As you know, the Authority has moved from the rule or compliance based model of supervision to the Risk Based Supervision (RBS) model. For us to effectively implement RBS, it has become necessary for the authority to adopt technology in its supervisory and regulatory activities,” said IRA’s boss Sammy Makove during the launch of the system at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi.
Through ERS, insurance companies will be able to electronically upload their data as required and the regulator shall be able to analyze the same through the same platform.
This is a shift from the manual submission of data that has been the case and that is prone to errors and delays.
“It is also a cheap solution since we are doing away with the costs associated with the physical printing and actual deliveries of the data that is provided by companies,” added Mr Makove.
Kenya is the third country to adopt ERS in Africa after Ghana and Namibia.
The Sh45 million system was realized through the support of World bank’s FLSTAP programmed and Vizor Ltd consultants.