Bangladesh

1. Celebrating National Insurance Day for the First Time in Bangladesh:
National Insurance day on March 1 to commemorate the day joining date of Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman the greatest leader, founding president of Bangladesh in theinsurance profession same day in 1960. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated
the day.
2. The Highest Revenue Income from Insurance Sector:
The Highest Revenue Income from Insurance Sector in the Government Treasury
within the history of 50 years independence in 1971. Revenue amount about BDT2000
crore (USD 235.30 Million; USD 1 = BDT 85) was collected combinedly from life andnon-life insurance.
3. Insurance Sector Development Project (BISDP):
Government Peoples Republic of Bangladesh inaugurated 5 years long Insurance
Sector Development Project (BISDP). The main objective of the BISDP is to strengthen
the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), institutionally as wellas Bangladesh Insurance Academy (BIA), Jiban Bima Corporation (Life Insurance
Corporation) and Sadharan Bima Corporation (Non-Life Insurance Corporation).

Complied by M Ahsanul Haq Founding Member of the Actuarial Society of Bangladesh,
dedicated volunteer for the Actuarial Profession, Insurance Profession as well as many
positive Social Movement.
Actuarial Society of Bangladesh

China

1. Further opening up of Life Insurance Sector.
The CBIRC has announced that with effect from 1 January 2020, restrictions on thestake of foreign investors in life insurance joint ventures will be officially lifted, andthe foreign shareholding can reach 100%. In June 2020, AIA was approved as the First
Foreign Company with a Wholly-owned Life Insurance Subsidiary in Mainland China.
2. Release of revised definitions of critical illnesses.
Revised definitions of critical illnesses were released in November by the Insurance
Association of China and Chinese Medical Doctor Association, with a three-month
period granted for the transition between the old and new definitions.
There are 3 major changes in this issue. One is the establishment of the critical illnessclassification system, second is the expanding of the protection scope and the last one
is the scope expending and optimization of illness definition.
3. Outlines of Chinese life insurance business.
The Chinese life insurance industry posted premium income totaling CNY3.1tn($474bn) in the first 11 months of 2020, accounting for 74.1% of the overall insurance
industry, and representing an increase of 7.4% year-on-year.

Insurance Association of China

Korea□ Life insurers relying more on the non-contact sales channel after COVID-19
In the aftermath of coronavirus (COVID-19), one of the biggest challenges faced by thelife insurance industry in Korea was limited opportunity to meet customers
face-to-face. The Korean government has ordered its people to keep a social distance meaning keeping at least 2 meters distance between yourself and others, avoiding
face-to-face interaction as much as possible - in a bid to cope with the pandemic, andthis has significantly changed the way life insurers run their business, with agencies
closed down and employees working from home. And not only that, it has put a
restraint on life insurance agents’ activity to meet their customers in person.
As “contactless”- which often referred to as ‘untact’ in Korea- culture has taken root in
Korea life insurers have decided to implement an online platform through which they
can sell products and communicate with customers instead of the traditional channel.
To make sure that life insurers find a way to survive during the pandemic era, Korea
Life Insurance Association (KLIA) organized a task force to provide support,
particularly in bridging the gap between online and offline channels (so-called 'hybridmarketing') and establishing a simplified mobile subscription system as well as
lobbying lawmakers to allow using AI to explain products and give a happy call - as atool for monitoring complete sales - to customers.
Korean life insurers have also built online distribution channels and developed micro
insurance plans. Experts say that there is a growing interest in the online or directchannel due to the COVID-19, which will lower customers’ reliance on the face-to-facechannel in the long run.
□ Insurers expanding healthcare services to meet the growing interest in health anddisease prevention
Another noticeable trend of the insurance industry in 2020 was the expansion ofhealthcare services. As the pandemic has increased the interest in health life insurers
in Korea came up with a healthcare platform or service to help customers maintaintheir health. Samsung Life, Hanwha Life, and Kyobo Life rolled out their healthcare
service called “S-Walking”, “Hello” and “Kare” respectively. Shinhan Life has become
the first insurance company that can provide health management service not only to
its customers but also to the general public. After registering the health-related
service as its secondary business, Shinhan recently released the beta version of adigital healthcare platform named “How-FIT.”
While the global healthcare market has shown rapid growth over the recent years, theKorean one is yet in the beginning stage, meaning it can serve as a future growthengine for the life insurance industry that has reached the maturity stage. The life
insurance industry says that interest in healthcare services and individual health has
been at an all-time high during the COVID-19 pandemic. And life insurers are taking
this crisis as an opportunity to offer new healthcare services and products based on
the health data they have collected. As the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has
relieved regulations on launching healthcare services for the general public andowning such healthcare companies, life insurers are more likely to seek to enter thehealthcare market in the near future.

□A pending bill on simplifying medical indemnity insurance claims
The revised bill of simplifying medical indemnity insurance claims failed to pass the
21st National Assembly held in 2020, making it pending over 11 years since theAnti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission recommended reforming the relevant
system in 2009.
Under the current system, a policyholder must submit his/her medical statement
issued by hospitals to an insurer, who will then type in all contents in the document
into its system, which is quite cumbersome and complicated for all stakeholders. That
is why the bill suggests simplifying the process by allowing hospitals to send themedical record directly to insurers with no need to issue paper documents. Insurers
say this will save much time and effort for their customers as well.
The subcommittee under the National Policy Committee was held to deliberate the billin December 2020 but failed to come to an agreement among the committee members.
The Korean Medical Association has opposed the bill arguing that digitalized medical
statement runs a risk of leaking personal information. Moreover, they say, it is unfair
to require medical institutions to handle insurance claims of patients.
Sources in the insurance industry indicate that there are some hidden reasons behindthe objection of medical professionals. It seems they are afraid that the proposed billmight disclose the non-reimbursable treatment practices that have been a lucrative
source of income, and thereby making medical fees come under the control of thegovernment or insurers. Even NGOs say that streamlining the claim process isessential and inures to the benefit of policyholders. As the bill did not go through theNational Assembly this year again following rejection last year despite the hope forthe amendment in and out of the insurance industry, discussions have once again
stalled.

Korea Life Insurance AssociationMalaysia

1. 90 days deferment period/no-lapse guarantee for 3 months for policyholders impacted
by COVID-19 pandemic
In support of the Malaysian Government’s measures to assist the people in copingwith the COVID-19 pandemic, the life insurance industry implemented a 3-month or
90 days deferment period for payment of premiums for all policyholders who areimpacted by the pandemic.
Insurance companies continued to provide insurance protection to affected
policyholders if they were not able to pay for their premiums. They must apply totheir insurance companies to get approval before they could benefit from this relief
measure which was available from 1 April 2020 until 31 December 2020. In fact, life
insurers are now extending this facility to June 2021.
As at December 2020, the deferment of policy premiums has benefitted over 1 million
policyholders with premium valued at over RM1.6 billion. In addition to theindustry-wide efforts, individual life insurers have also rolled out various schemes toaid policyholders throughout 2020.
Visit https://www.liam.org.my/news/press_statement.aspx?ct=3

2. RM8 Million COVID-19 Test FundA RM8 million COVID-19 Test Fund was set up in March 2020, as an urgent responseby the industry in support of the Ministry of Health’s efforts in conducting more
COVID-19 tests on Malaysians. LIAM contributed RM5 million towards the fundwhich is open to Individual and Group Medical and Health Insurance policyholders
who were at risks or exposed to the pandemic. Policyholders are eligible to claim for aCOVID-19 test up to RM300 through a dedicated portal www.MyCTF.my.
During the third wave of the pandemic, the CTF eligibility criteria was expanded toencourage policyholders to go for their tests voluntarily as part of the industry’s efforts
to curb the spread of the pandemic.

The eligibility includes emergency and semi

emergency surgeries, asymptomatic patients and hospital admissions.
The industry also engaged with private labs and public screening facilities fordiscounted prices of COVID-19 tests. Visit www.MyCTF.my3. #BUKANEXTRA Campaign targeting young generation on Social MediaLIAM together with its 16 member companies launched its inaugural consumerawareness program on social media called #BUKANEXTRA.
Targeting the youth, single professionals, newly-married couples and young families,
the #BUKANEXTRA campaign which commenced from 9 September to 6 October 2020
aimed to educate consumers on the importance of life insurance protection; toencourage financial planning among the younger generation and to create a sense ofurgency to act early.
The campaign consists of a contest on Instagram, an interactive game on #Bukan
Extra microsite which allows visitors to create their own drama using very ‘extra’
scenarios from the campaign videos, shout outs by Social Media Influencers and social
media engagements
The industry hopes that the engagement with key opinion leaders on social media
would drive positive messages to their followers, changing their mindset about life
insurance and bring values to the lives of the young generation.

Visit

www.bukanextra.com

Life Insurance Association of Malaysia

Taiwan

1. The FSC promulgates the “Rules for Minimum Percentage of Life Insurance Death
Benefits over Policy Value Reserve (Policy Value)” to steer insurance products back to
the original purpose of protection.
The popularity of savings-oriented insurance products has helped life insurers sellmany new policies and new contract premiums accumulate rapidly. The phenomenon
however gave rise to a number of problems for life insurers, such as mismatch ofassets and liabilities, the guaranteed interest rate being higher than the return on
investment, the pressure to invest excess cash flows, higher proportion of foreign
investment, and exchange rate risk. In a move to steer insurance products back to theoriginal purpose of protection, the competent authority implemented the “Rules for
Minimum Percentage of Life Insurance Death Benefits over Policy Value Reserve(Policy Value)” on July 1, 2020. Under these Rules, the death benefits of life insurance
policies sold to different age groups divided by policy value reserve (policy value) mustreach a certain percentage (ex.: For 0~30 age group, not below 190%, for 31~40 age
group, not below 160%), which should rectify the past phenomenon of over-emphasison savings-oriented insurance products.
2. Insurance solicitors are required to take 6 hours of common compliance courses
online every year starting 2020
To make sure registered insurance solicitors continue to keep abreast of applicableregulations and professional knowledge, they are required to take at least 6 hours ofcommon compliance courses offered by external institutions online every year starting
2020. The online courses contain subject-based teaching and discussions that aresupplemented with important regulatory requirements. The courses are presented byanalyzing commonly seen negligence or breach cases involving insurance solicitors
and insurance regulations violated. Other important regulations not mentioned incase discussions are also summarily explained. This continuing education requirement
will enable insurance solicitors to learn more and develop legal concepts.
3. New era of insurance services – one-stop service offered by insurance
conservation/claim alliance chain
In a move to enable policyholders to experience the convenience brought by insurance

technology (InsurTech) and reducing the operating costs of manual operation andinvestment duplication for life insurance companies, the FSC has constructed an“Insurance Technology Sharing Platform”, in which the “Conservation/Claim Alliance
Chain” operation offers some frequently used after-sale policy related services andmedical reimbursement benefits claim services. The Alliance Chain operation went
online on July 1, 2020 and was officially launched in January 2021 after six months ofpilot run and FSC approval. Currently there are 18 life insurance companies
participating in the alliance, including 11 companies that have participated in thepilot run and 7 new participants. Policyholders of those companies can apply for claim
or policy change services on company website, APP or mobile service. With
policyholder’s authorization, the system will notify other insurers of the policyholder
to initiate relevant services and the policyholder’s application process record is saved
using blockchain technology. The Alliance Chain saves policyholders the hassle andinconvenience of applying for policy related services in person. On the other hand, it
reduces the operating costs of insurance companies incurred in manual operation andinvestment duplication, thereby creating a win-win situation for both consumers andinsurers.

The Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China

Japan1. Adopting an online-based remote system to sell life insurance products.
Responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, life insurance companies developed a system
to sell life insurance products through online to avoid direct contacts between theirsales agents and clients. One foreign affiliated life insurance company successfullylaunched the online application system, and thereby all the sales process, fromhearing customer intentions to proposing insurance plans and concluding insurance
contracts, can be done remotely through online. It resulted in the better performancesuch as improving customer convenience and shortening the time to conclude acontract.
2. Decline in business performance of life insurance companies due to the COVID-19
pandemic
In the first half of 2020 (from April to September), the annualized new premiums of 14
major life insurance companies were about 500 billion yen, 42% down from the same
period last year.

Following the first half of 2019, during which the industry

experienced the sharp decline in sales of foreign currency denominated products andproducts for business owners because of falling interest rates and tax revisions, itmarked the second consecutive year of the significant drop in sales.
3. Launch of a new product with extended coverage for COVIID-19 infection.
One life insurance company launched a life insurance product that provides a
lump-sum payment of JPY400,000, which is the industry’s highest level, for even a
hospitalization less than 24 hours if the insured is hospitalized for certain infectious
diseases including COVID-19. Customers can receive the benefit by adding it to theregular insurance products and by so doing, it, for example, doubles the coverageamount of the base policies. It will support a policyholder’s daily life and ease his/herconcern over the financial impact caused by unexpected costs relating to medical
treatments or hospitalization, and/or income loss.
Oriental Life Insurance Cultural Development Center