Friday, December 11, 2020 at 1:53 PM
Casablanca – Heckled by the health crisis, the insurance sector has been exposed, by the nature of its activity, to new systemic risks and colossal losses suffered by various stakeholders. Faced with new requirements due to the consequences of the pandemic, the sector has been able to reinvent itself, through a series of measures aimed at restoring confidence between policyholders and insurers, while focusing on the social role of insurance.
In Morocco, the measures taken by insurance and reinsurance companies have been multiple, including in particular the contribution of several insurance companies to the Covid-19 fund, and the application of discounts on automobile insurance premiums during the period of confinement.
In a study entitled “the insurance sector facing Covid-19”, the Grant Thornton firm believes that “despite the magnitude of the effects of this unprecedented crisis, the insurance sector in Morocco remains solid and continues to grow. cover the solvency margin requirement ”.
Indeed, the turnover of the sector stood at 27.32 billion dirhams (billion dirhams), at the end of June 2020 against 26.11 billion dirhams a year earlier, i.e. an increase of 4.6% compared to the same period in 2019, according to the half-yearly report of the Insurance and Social Security Control Authority (Acaps).
Even with an increase in turnover, the net income of the insurance and reinsurance sector was in deficit, falling from 2.6 billion dirhams at the end of June 2019, to 2.1 billion dirhams at the end of June 2020, a decrease of 21 billion dirhams. , 9%, underlines the Acaps.
The regulator, whose role is to ensure the proper functioning of companies and the preservation of the rights of policyholders, indicates that insurance companies faced, during the first half of 2020, “a difficult economic situation”.
According to the study by Grant Thornton, the fall in the financial markets, the difficulties encountered by their clients and, in certain branches, a strong predictable drift in claims, are likely to ”have a major impact on the balance sheet of insurers but also on their operating account ”.
It is in this spirit that Acaps has imposed a series of prudential measures, in order to support and guarantee the proper functioning of the insurance sector, limit the impact of the crisis on insurers, while allowing them to continue to honor their commitments to policyholders.
Among these measures, the Supervisory Authority agreed to the spread over two financial years of the allocation to be recognized this year in respect of the provision for liability risk, in addition to the relaxation of the provisioning rules relating to depreciation. investments, as well as the provision for unpaid receivables and premiums and the provision for depreciation of receivables from intermediaries and policyholders.
These measures, which also seek to strengthen the sector’s resilience in the face of shocks caused by the current situation and to protect policyholders and beneficiaries of insurance contracts, also concern the preservation of companies’ equity, by setting the distributable ceiling for dividends. at 30% of net income.
On the other hand, and in order to relieve the insureds, the sector has reinvented itself by including in “Health” insurance contracts the medical and pharmaceutical acts and costs related to Covid-19. Likewise, “Accident at Work” contracts also cover teleworking when it is authorized by the employer, with the exception of household accidents.
At the same time, and like in Morocco, the insurance sectors in other countries have been able to demonstrate resilience thanks to accommodative easing measures. The Grant Thornton firm informs that in France as in the United Kingdom, the distribution of dividends has been postponed until October 2020. Other measures aimed at extending the deadline for collecting premiums have been adopted in Switzerland and in Belgium. As for the compensation period, it has been reduced in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, China and India.
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