. the combined gross premium income of the industry stood at $ 311. 9 million in 2016, the first time year that the annual premium has gone past the $ 300 million mark. this, honourable chair, is reflective of a growing industry even in a year of a severe catastrophe. net policy payments for the life insurance sector and net claims paid for the general insurance sectors totalled $ 185. 9 million. the industry continued to be assessed as solvent and its earnings performance assessed as satisfactory. honourable chair, the reserve bank of fiji continues to liaise with individual companies on the sustainability of their operations and like any other business during times of crisis, some companies ’ underwriting capacity have been challenged by the impact of recent loss events. as the regulator, the reserve bank has the necessary powers to enforce requirements to ensure that individual companies remain safe and sound, and the insurance industry as a whole continues to be stable. 3. conclusion honourable chair, we note from the list of questions circulated by the committee, the increased interest in what the insurance industry is doing to increase its visibility and promote the important role it plays. we in fact welcome this long list of questions as this gives us an opportunity to explain these issues and clear any mis - understanding or mis - conception. we admit that while there is a view that we have not been pushing the industry that strong, we are happy to report that various development work were being undertaken behind the scenes in the last three years, of which we are now beginning to see the results. i will therefore conclude by providing some brief information on a number of recent developments that now prove a more collaborative approach by the reserve bank, the insurance industry and development partners in seeking to increase the fijian insurance industry ’ s capacity to offer new and innovative products : ( i ) inclusive insurance bundled product in march 2015, the reserve bank of fiji, in collaboration with the united nations pacific financial inclusion program, embarked on a project to facilitate the expansion of inclusive insurance in fiji. inclusive insurance ( or micro - insurance ) refers to the provision of insurance products to the low income and vulnerable sectors of the population. while the reserve bank ’ s intention of involving all general insurance companies did not really come though, we were pleased to note that in july 2017, fijicare insurance limited came forward and offered the first bundled micro insurance product to 11, 606 registered cane farmers who now have access to some form of insurance. the bundled micro insurance product provides a sum insured of $ 10, 000 with an

silver standard – middle income who can afford but do not have insurance because of the high cost of meeting insurer requirements such as the engineer ’ s certificate ( 36k households ) ; bronze standard – low income who can afford some form of insurance cover but are not offered the relevant products to meet their capacity to pay and the need that they have ( 121k households ) ; microinsurance – considered uninsurable and will need support as they cannot afford to pay for insurance ( 68k households ). the target group at this time is the bronze standard and we have now reached a stage where a product proposal has been put together for a sum insured of $ 7, 000 to be offered as household insurance for majority of the households in fiji with a low level of compliance, and a premium of around $ 200. the world bank will present the final product proposal to the government with the aim of soliciting international aid to assist in reinsuring this insurance portfolio. honourable chair, i hope those remarks are helpful background for the committee ’ s review of the reserve bank of fiji 2016 insurance annual report, and we would be happy to answer your questions. thank you 4 october 2017