Interviews

Gulf Insurance Institute

How does accreditation from the GII tie in with accreditation from global industry bodies such as the CII?
GII follows the qualification through membership. This means that members become associates and fellows and earn the designation AGII and FGII once they have completed the required number of credits. Our courses are accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) as well as the American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU). This means that our fellows, for example, have the maximum prior learning credits that can be obtained from the CII and three out of eight credits from the AICPCU. If they wish to continue studying with these institutes, and gain further qualifications and designations from them, they need only complete the required modules from these international institutes. GII is also currently in discussions for cross-accreditations with other institutes around the world.

These arrangements effectively make GII qualifications internationally accredited and portable in that if a qualified member moves from the Mena region he can use his GII studies for accreditation.

What is your vision for the future of the GII and what new developments can we expect over the next few years?
The vision of the board of directors is for the GII qualifications and designations to become the qualifications of choice for Insurance and risk management professionals across the Mena region. We will work so that the GII designations demonstrate a strong commitment by the holders to quality learning, dissemination of industry knowledge, high standards of business conduct and continued professional development. We have set ourselves ambitious targets on the number of associates and fellows that we would like to see holding our designations and our first benchmark is two thousand associates in the next three years.

With regard to developments, there are so many plans in hand for GII that it is difficult to list them. However, to summarise, we have plans for new learning centres in the region, investing in educational technology to use it to its full advantage to deliver our qualifications across the whole Mena region, quality assurance certification, publication of text books in Arabic and English, and many other projects that provide opportunities for learning and continued professional development.

Attracting indigenous local talent to the GCC insurance industry has proven to be particularly difficult. What can be done to address this?
I do not think that the difficulties are particular to this region, although this region has a lot to do to catch up with the European, Asian and North American markets. The reality is that insurance is not a career path of choice all over the world. As you know this was one of the topics at the IIS conference in Jordan and it appeared to me there was general consensus that the industry is not communicating its message well. For most people their first encounter with insurance is as a consumer when they are obliged to purchase compulsory motor insurance. This gives a rather dim perspective of the industry and perhaps an even less encouraging view of life inside the industry. Although comparisons may be odious, perhaps more so in the current financial crisis, the public generally refers to our friends in the banking industry as “bankers”. The term has positive connotations and a lot of young persons aspire to be bankers, conjuring up the Wall Street or City of London image of a successful person in the financial services industry making a lot of money. On the other hand, for the insurance industry the most common perception is of the dull underpaid insurance salesman that the media has often portrayed in a negative light.

We, the trainers, together with the HR people, need to start to strip down this image and replace it with one of a professional underwriter, broker, risk manager, loss adjuster, account executive, financial planning consultants etc and the dynamic and technically challenging risk business that these people deal with.

As trainers in the Mena region, we must also design programmes that can be hooked up as one of the choices available alongside the other professions at higher secondary and tertiary level such as economics, finance, banking and business administration.

What motivates you and excites you about the industry?
Where there is human endeavour there is risk. I now have 28 years’ experience in the industry and if I had to select a single motivational factor, it is that I have had the opportunity to interact with and learn from a large cross-section of customers involved in different human endeavour and facing their own particular risks; from shopkeepers running small corner shops to CEOs running mega construction projects or Industrial corporations; from an individual buying his first modest house to a multi-million dollar householder owning art collections and race horses; from the village doctor to the construction engineer in some remote rugged location; from part-time fisherman to shipowners of fleets of vessels. The interaction with these people has greatly enriched my life. The fact that I can pass on his experience through education is currently my driving force.

What would you like to change about the industry?
I would make more stringent requirements before any person can sign policies, accept risks, negotiate or advise on risk and insurance or handle claims.

Unfortunately there are too many people who are stepping into the shoes of insurance executives without proper training and knowledge of code of business conduct. This leads to mistakes, misconduct and greed. The financial crisis has shown that financial systems can collapse from human misconduct and greed, and we must learn from this and adapt. That is the vision I share with the board of directors and management of GII.

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