Insurance
From The Report: Sri Lanka 2017
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These are changing times for Sri Lanka’s insurance sector. Major regulatory moves over the last two years have seen much strengthening and consolidation, with these processes set to continue in the year ahead. Profitability remains high, particularly in the life insurance segment, while in the non-life segment a fiercely competitive environment is driving companies to find ways to differentiate through more innovative and distinctive products and campaigns. Meanwhile, many eyes are focused on Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic conditions. Areas such as medical and health, real estate and project insurance are all tipped to be future growth areas, as the country’s economy cranks up and the middle class expands.

This chapter contains an interview with Hemaka Amarasuriya, Chairman, Sri Lanka Insurance.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Streamlining the market: Steady premium expansion continues, while new rules are expected to result in stronger players
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These are changing times for Sri Lanka’s insurance sector. Major regulatory moves over the last two years have seen much strengthening and consolidation, with these processes set to continue in the year ahead. Profitability remains high, particularly in the life insurance segment, while in the non-life segment a fiercely competitive environment is driving companies to find ways to differentiate through more innovative and distinctive products and campaigns. Meanwhile, many eyes are focused…

Interview

Informative and inclusive: Hemaka Amarasuriya, Chairman, Sri Lanka Insurance, on growth and penetration of the domestic market
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Interview: Hemaka Amarasuriya How has the sector demonstrated its commitment to increase insurance penetration levels? HEMAKA AMARASURIYA: In comparison to GDP, premiums are at a low 0.5%. In emerging markets such as ours, there will be a time lag between increasing GDP and its trickle-down effect on peripheral markets. Insurance penetration for households is at 13% and for the working population it is 33%. The impact on penetration should therefore be viewed after researching all variants. Latterly,…

Analysis

A new regime: Changing regulations look to deepen and strengthen the sector
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Recent times have seen the government and private sector take significant steps to strengthen Sri Lanka’s insurance industry. These have involved regulatory measures to make it both deeper and narrower, while outreach campaigns to demonstrate to ordinary citizens the benefits of being insured have been launched. On this latter point, the industry has also been making efforts to counteract negative sentiment from the past, providing reassurance that it will operate in a fully transparent…