Dubai: Despite the global Takaful insurance market exhibiting impressive double-digit growth of 18 per cent over the period 2007-2012, the regulatory environment remains a work in progress and faces the challenge of inconsistency and conflicting interpretation across jurisdictions, according to Deloitte’s 2014 Takaful Insurance Report for Asia, Middle East and Africa.
An executive round-table jointly hosted by Deloitte Middle East and IRTI-IDB Group on November 30, 2014 in Dubai brought together industry executives to debate key regulatory and investment strategies for sustainable industry growth, as well as the findings of Deloitte’s 2014 Takaful Insurance Report for Asia, Middle East and Africa, entitled “The Way Forward for Takaful” and launched end of November 2014 as a joint research initiative in collaboration with INCEIF and Henley Business School.
Joe Al Fadl, Partner in charge of the Financial Services Industry at Deloitte Middle East, commented: “Strengthening the regulatory frameworks of the takaful industry requires focused effort and the support of all industry stakeholders. National regulators as well as industry standard-setting bodies (SSBs) are working together on initiatives to improve Takaful practices and policy-making processes. This event aimed to deepen dialogue among stakeholders on various regulatory issues and market practice challenges facing the takaful operators.” Examining six key markets of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan, the report identifies practice gaps and product offerings, and suggests ways to complement one another. Among the findings the study observes that takaful product offerings and diversity of products are lacking, and that the Takaful business is by far underpenetrated in the six countries examined. “These fresh Islamic finance analytics mark the beginning of a new approach in our industry which promotes a culture of industry-driven research modelled around case-study building which is supported by global practitioners’ insights and perspectives. We are particularly delighted with the round-table debate which cross-examined our report findings and discussed an interesting plan for the way forward,” said Hatim El Tahir, Director of the Deloitte Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre in the Middle East.
