Insurance
From The Report: Oman 2017
View in Online Reader

The insurance industry in Oman has grown strongly in recent years and now plays an important role in the domestic economy, rising from 0.9% of GDP in 2008 to 1.6% in 2015. Important regulatory changes made in 2015 and 2016, aimed at strengthening the industry’s capital base, promise to usher in a new era of expansion and to boost the amount of premiums retained within the local market. To grow, however, the nation’s insurers must first adjust to a potentially protracted low-oil-price environment and increasing levels of competition, both of which represent significant challenges.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Up and coming: Reforms and economic trends are likely to boost insurance uptake
OBG
plus

The insurance industry in Oman has grown rapidly in recent years and now plays an important role in the domestic economy. From contributing only 0.9% to GDP in 2008, it has risen to account for 1.6% of GDP as of 2015, according to figures from the sector regulator, the Capital Market Authority (CMA). Important regulatory changes made in 2015 and 2016, aimed at strengthening the industry’s capital base, promise to usher in a new era of expansion and to boost the amount of premium retained within…

Analysis

Getting ahead: The nascent takaful segment now benefits from a legal framework
OBG
plus

As the last of the GCC countries to regulate Islamic finance activity, Oman held to a framework that made no distinction between sharia-compliant and conventional institutions for many years. All of that changed in 2011, when a royal decree permitted the establishment of standalone Islamic banks and windows, which in 2013 were provided with a comprehensive regulatory framework by the Central Bank of Oman. By 2014 a nascenttakaful(Islamic insurance) industry had emerged, populated by…