Call for the regulation of the microinsurance sector in Sri Lanka

The survey conducted by the International Cooperative and Mutual insurance Federation (ICMIF) and the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) has highlighted a very low microinsurance penetration rate in Sri Lanka. The latter is of less than 1%.

The study explains this poor indicator by the inability of the population to bear the costs of services and by the lack of confidence in the insurance providers. The importance of community networks would also be an obstacle to the development of insurance as a risk management strategy.

Currently, there is no regulatory framework for microinsurance or mutual microinsurance. IPS through its Poverty and Social welfare Policy unit urgently calls for the establishment of a regulation for the sector. For IPS, the latter should be coupled with the implentation of a strategy whose objective is to improve knowledge and build relationships based on the confidence of policyholders towards microinsurance companies.

The survey will support the 5-5-5 ICMIF strategy which aims to extend microinsurance to 5 million low-income households in five emerging countries (Colombia, India, Kenya, Philippines and Sri Lanka) over a five-year period.