- Without regulation and literacy, insurance cannot become a trusted financial safety net in Pakistan
Interview with Mr. Naim Anwar — CEO, Crescent Star Insurance Limited
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:
Naim Anwar: Born in a family which has a legacy going back to before partition from Calcatta (present Kolkata) moving on to East Pakistan in tea estates with the family leading the huge tea business and the family legacy with a very strong established background. Initial schooling from Dacca (present Dhaka), moving to West Pakistan in 1971 as a result of war, completed the schooling from Karachi and Hyderabad, with graduation from Karachi. I started my business career from family business in textiles and leathers moving on in various levels of experience finally exposure in the western business environment gaining various experiences, at the same time had the chance to do ACCA (level 1 & 2). This gives me the strength of having vast experience in the industrial business, retail, and wholesale, manufacturing and trading in various products. However, from 1992, I moved into the insurance world, starting as agent growing to senior management positions, including various roles at Adamajee Insurance Ltd, leading to Executive Director (AICL), with a tenure as Deputy Managing Director, PICIC Insurance Ltd, and my current role since 2013 till date is as CEO, Crescent Star Insurance Ltd. In this journey in the insurance sector, I have been member of executive committee of Insurance Association of Pakistan, in various tenures, including being Vice Chairman, IAP, and have served as Chairman Pakistan Insurance Institute during this journey. My career till date continues in insurance.
PAGE: Why do Pakistanis remain reluctant to use insurance services?
Naim Anwar: It is due to low penetration, unawareness, religious belief, lack of government and regulatory support to insurance sector, which has been neglected over years and desperately need a complete mechanism for insurance to be made a must in the business and individual lives of the people without which the system should not work. This is the realization which is badly needed in the country and the acceptability of the insurance as a financial institution like other financial sector which has been promoted and grown in Pakistan with the coordination of all relevant areas needed for this success.
PAGE: How would you comment on lack of awareness about actual risk levels?
Naim Anwar: By improving the need of the corporate sector to understand the insurance in true spirits as opposed to a need to cover borrowings. While on the individual based market the awareness of the deep understanding on insurance and for the public to understand that without insurance their entire saving, earning or growth is at risk of any event which may take place and that one single event may change the entire life of the entire family and its generation. This realization has to be there before one can keep talking about the low penetration. It is imperative to connect this with the growth of the literacy rate in the country.
PAGE: Around 0.8% Pakistanis have insurance coverage, compared to 4% in India. What is your take on it?
Naim Anwar: Government and regulatory support, and the literacy rate of the general people to understand the concept of insurance and the requirement of the same as a basic need and a must in life.
PAGE: Insurers promote economic growth by keeping businesses afloat during emergencies? What is your standpoint?
Naim Anwar: Insurance’s basic principle is that it restores the policy holder to the position he/she was in before the loss. If one understands this one sentence the policy holder and the people connected will themselves connect to the question asked and find the solution from within. One hugely untapped area of understanding is the risk of business interruption, which itself is a class of business and a policy which insurance sector does offer, but there is very little understanding of this policy.