| By Nadia GuyadeenRaj Singh, the Chief Executive Officer of Raj Singh Insurance Brokers and Risk Management Consultants, says that Guyana is now faced with the consequences of lack of regulatory oversight.According to him,Air Max 1 Atmos For Sale, with its limited financial and human resources, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) is ill-equipped to properly and effectively monitor and regulate the Insurance Act of Guyana.“They would be the first to admit this. We should not be ashamed of confronting this problem head on,” Singh added.Singh was at the time addressing a gathering at the celebration of his company’s 10th anniversary at Duke Lodge on Wednesday evening. In his address,Air Max 90 Essential White And Black Womens, he also stated that the reason behind CLICO’s demise is that neither brokers nor the insurance public knew what was going on.According to Singh, they had no idea funds were being diverted with sister party transactions and the Commissioner of Insurance, Maria van Beek,Jordan Sneakers For Sale, was not advising the public or the brokers as to what was happening.“We never knew what was happening in terms of the investment of CLICO with CLICO (Bahamas) because they are not equipped to do the whole process…they don’t have the manpower to do it, they don’t have the financial resources to do it.”Singh also pointed out that there is room for improvement in the Insurance Act. However, he added, a serious study needs to be done on how the Insurance Act needs to be updated or amended.As it relates to the sacking of CLICO’s employees, Singh commented that the requisite authorities have stopped writing insurance business and are not renewing any insurance business.As such, there is definitely need for cutting staff. “You don’t need the amount of staff you have on the payroll but I don’t know the terms of their termination.”“But we need to seriously tighten up on the regulations for the insurance companies because we have seen what has happened now. This is big evidence of what has happened with poor regulation and with stricter regulation we can have a better functioning system.”Singh also said that some major issues and problems which the OCI and the insurance industry need to closely address in the very near future include the quality of the insurance brokers.“This is not meant to be a personal attack on anyone, but a true broker is supposed to be the insurance advisor of the insured, a person with whom the insured would have implicit faith and trust in his technical expertise and professional advices.”The erosion of this fiduciary trust is lethal. There are only two practicing qualified brokers operating in Guyana and Raj Singh Insurance is one those brokers, he asserted.“As a follow up to the first point,Cheap Air Max Shoes For Sale, the professional liability (errors and omissions) limit of $10M for brokers is woefully inadequate, especially when they are advising clients with assets and liabilities worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”In addition, Singh said that the practice of a few insurance companies in adopting a policy decision of denying perfectly legitimate claims for the flimsiest of reasons, in effect delaying payments so that these claims end up firstly with the arbitration board and probably( for those who can afford the legal process) in our already overloaded legal system.“The arbitration system provided for by the Insurance Act has operated to some effect but the legality of this body has now been called into question by the courts as being unconstitutional. A quick review of the cases heard by that body will reveal which companies are the guilty ones as most of the decisions taken at that level have been favourable to the insurers.”Fourthly, Singh noted that there is a dire need for independent financial ratings of insurers locally.“In the absence of any recognised financial ratings’ agencies within our midst, it will be difficult for brokers to market CLICO in the future.”According to Singh, some methodology needs to be developed, probably by the OCI, to provide useful indicators when analyzing these insurers’ financial records annually, which will assist brokers and the general public in making better informed decisions on the solvency and liquidity of these insurers.“Intermediaries, other than brokers and agents employed by insurers, who are authorized to offer insurance to the general public (GNSC, Courts & NBS). There seems to be little or no oversight in this area at all.This is another very dangerous area that can be compared with an accident waiting to happen.”According to Singh,Adidas Shoes On Sale Clearance, Guyana is now faced with the most troubling and challenging of times within the financial world today. Insurance, he added, is an integral cog in the financial wheel.From the world news of AIG (which is the largest insurer in the world) and the collapsing banks “there have been expressions of outrage across the political spectrum reached a new crescendo Monday when Sen. Charles Grassley suggested in an Iowa city radio interview that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.”“To the Stanford Investment Group regionally (the largest ponzi schemer within our midst whose tentacles reached out to our much revered game of cricket in the Caribbean firstly,Nike Air Max Shoes For Men, then into the halls of the Mecca of cricket in London), and regionally, CLICO (victim of very poor investment decisions) & Hand in Hand (victim of greatest con artist ever to touch the shores of our precious Caribbean territory).“The demise of the US financial system has had a vicious domino effect on the entire world.”Regulatory oversight or lack thereof has been the main culprit in the demise of the most powerful financial system in the world.We can only learn from these mistakes of others…. We need to strengthen our regulatory system with the appropriate resources, Singh added. |
