Fintelekt and LIMRA hold Insurance Summit

The first Fintelekt-LIMRA Summit on Insurance Marketing and Distribution was held at the Taj Samudra, Colombo recently.

Panellists: From left: Shirish Pathak, CEO, Fintelekt; Anand Pejawar, Executive Director, Marketing, SBI Life Insurance; Chula Hettiarachchi, Chief Operating Officer, Life, Asian Alliance Insurance; Rukman Weeraratne, General Manager, Marketing and Life Distribution, Union Assurance; Shah Rouf, Chief Executive Officer, AIA Insurance Lanka; Indrajit Wikramasinghe, CEO, Union Bank of Colombo; Ian Watts, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, International Operations, LIMRA and LOMA.

Over a hundred key managers from life insurance companies in Sri Lanka, including distribution and sales heads, zonal and regional managers were present. The speakers included industry stalwarts such as Dirk Pereira, President, Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL); Manjula De Silva, Chairman, National Insurance Trust Fund (NITF); Rukman Weeraratne, General Manager - Marketing and Distribution, Union Assurance; Indrajit Wikramasinghe, CEO, Union Bank of Colombo; Anand Pejawar - Executive Director -Marketing, SBI Life Insurance India; Chula Hettiarachchi, COO-Life, Asian Alliance; and Shah Rouf, CEO, AIA Lanka. According to Shirish Pathak, CEO, Fintelekt, "The insurance industry in Sri Lanka is poised for substantial growth and is now looking at ways to increase focus on meeting customer expectations and enhance distribution effectiveness, both of which are critical to industry growth. The objective of the Fintelekt-LIMRA Summit on Marketing and Distribution was to share local, regional and global best practices in areas such as improving agency productivity, moving towards a multi-channel distribution mix, and improving outreach to the under-insured and un-insured population".

Ian Watts, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, International Operations, LIMRA and LOMA, highlighted that technology is enabling more effective and productive distribution across the globe.

He stressed that regulation will keep evolving in the interests of the consumer, and companies will have to be prepared to deal with disruptions that arise out of regulatory change.