SIF adds new members and releases 2 Global Publications in the First Half of 2020 despite COVID-19 disruption
Geneva: The Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), the global network of insurance supervisors and regulators which works to address challenges to the sector brought about by the climate change crisis, added four new members in the first half of 2020, bringing its total to 30 members, according to its half yearly report.
The new members are the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA); the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA); the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) as well as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in the United States of America.
The report shows how members have maintained action on the sustainability and climate action agenda despite the difficulties posed to operations by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the half year, the SIF also released two global publications and hosted three member meetings while fully moving its operations online.
In March, SIF launched ‘SIF Question Bank on Climate Change Risks to the Insurance Sector (SIF Question Bank)’, a paper which helps supervisors develop engagement tools to better understand exposures and strategic responses of regulated entities to climate change risks and opportunities. It provides a framework, and sample questions, which supervisors can adapt for use in their own jurisdictions.
SIF’s first 2020 paper, ‘Issues Paper on the Implementation of the Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’, was launched in February having been developed in collaboration with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). It provides an overview of practices that supervisors have considered in the development of climate-related disclosure requirements within their markets and focuses on practices that can be implemented with limited direct regulatory intervention.
The SIF and the IAIS have also been preparing the groundwork on an Application Paper on the Supervision of Climate-related Risks in the Insurance Sector, which will be published in early 2021. The purpose of the paper is to promote a globally consistent approach to addressing climate-related risks in the supervision of the insurance sector
Geoff Summerhayes, Chairman, SIF and Executive Board Member at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) :
“With the SIF serving as the global platform for insurance supervisors to exchange experience and develop common approaches to shared challenges brought about by climate change, this report highlights the considerable work underway by our members and their jurisdictions. While showcasing their responses to sustainability challenges and opportunities for the business of insurance, it does so under the gaze of a post-COVID-19 world. In a sense it also provides a snapshot of the pre-COVID world as well as a picture of the immediate response to it at a regulatory level.”
Raymond G. Farmer, President, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) :
“As the U.S. standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, the NAIC is delighted to have joined the SIF earlier this year. Examining the issue of climate and natural catastrophe risks and resiliency is central to our mission of protecting policyholders and is the focus of a newly created NAIC task force. The NAIC looks forward to working with fellow SIF members to exchange and share best practices as we all strive to ensure we are at the forefront of thought-leadership and action on this critical issue.”
Read the half-yearly report here.
