- What difficulties has your financial institution faced this year?
- At the beginning of the year, the company, as well as the insurance market as a whole, were affected by the factors of a difficult geopolitical and macroeconomic situation, changes in the exchange rate of the tenge against the dollar and the ruble, and the resulting difficulties in doing business.
- What was this year for your financial organization?
- 2022 has become a turning point for our company. The decision to restructure IC Kommesk-Omir in terms of changing the insurance industry was made this October. This is due to the prospects of the life insurance industry, strengthening positions in this market segment, optimizing the management structure, business processes and expenses of the Centras group of companies, since it includes three insurance companies. The insurance portfolio (including general insurance assets and liabilities) of IC Kommesk-Omir JSC was transferred to the general insurance sister company IC Centras Insurance JSC. All agreements continued to operate on same terms.
- What can be considered as the year success?
- Despite a difficult year, the international rating agency A.M. Best confirmed the financial strength rating of "B-" and the long-term issuer credit rating of "bb-" of JSC IC Kommesk-Omir in April. The forecast of these credit ratings is "stable". The expert evaluation by A.M. Best says that a positive rating factor is the stability of the company's balance sheet and operating results, which are supported by Kommesk's high level of capitalization.
- What are your plans for the next year?
- Further development of LIC Kommesk-Omir, the first insurance company of independent Kazakhstan, will be continued with new priorities and guidelines. The company will strengthen the brand and increase recognition in a new quality through technological development and other competitive advantages. In the near future, we will receive a license to carry out insurance/reinsurance activities in the life insurance industry with the subsequent accession of a subsidiary, LIC Centras Kommesk Life. The company’s plan is to enter the market with a new line of endowment life insurance, unit-linked investment life insurance, and digital products that can be purchased on our website without visiting the office, and others in order to provide a wider range of services for consumers of insurance sectors.
- How did the regulator’s legislative innovations affect your financial organization?
- First of all, legislative amendments allowed our company to change the insurance industry. Legislative innovations will have a positive impact on the development of the insurance market in general, as they lead to its further development in terms of transparency of insurance rates, digitalization and promotion of new products.
For the insurance industry and for our clients, the changes related to the expansion of the list of insurance classes covered by the Insurance Payments Guarantee Fund, including joint retirement annuities and life insurance carried out in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the State Educational Accumulative System”, were significant. Thus, consumers of insurance services will be sure of receiving insurance payments, even if something happens to the insurer, for example, license revocation, and that their property rights are protected by the state.
Photos are from open sources.
