Ordinary Elective General Assembly of the Association of the Insurance, Reinsurance and Pension Companies of Turkey was held on 29 June 2020. During the General Assembly, Atilla Benli was reelected as the President of TSB by receiving all of the 61 valid votes.

TSB President Atilla Benli gave a speech after the election and underlined that Turkish insurance market was a big family with 66 members and all stakeholders who compete constructively domestically but stand united as a single voice outside our country. “Once again, being deemed worthy of the Presidency of TSB, the reference organization of our market, is a huge source of pride and responsibility for me,” he said.

“Our market reached an asset size of 237 billion TL, and a premium production of 69 billion TL at the end of 2019.  As of 12 June 2020, total number of participants exceeded 12 million and total fund size reached nearly 146 billion TL in BES (Private Pension System) and OKS (Auto-Enrollment System). Despite providing guarantee for giant projects such as 3rd Airport, Eurasia Tunnel, and Osmangazi Bridge with a size of 127 trillion TL -which equals to 34 times of the size of Turkey’s GDP- our market cannot reach the penetration levels it so rightly deserves. At the end of 2018, penetration rate of global insurance sector is 6 percent, but penetration rate of insurance market in Turkey is only around 2 percent. Despite being the 19th biggest economy in the world, our country has still not reached its true potential in terms of insurance market. Currently, our insurance market ranks 39th globally. With the new term, our macro target would be to carry our insurance and pension market to its deserved position in the world. As TSB, we will shape all our activities and strategic organizational moves with the aim of reaching this main target.”

“We have two main items on our agenda for the coming term”

Benli also announced TSB’s agenda for the coming term. “We have two major items on our agenda for the coming term. Precautions and actions defined in policy documents for insurance and pension markets constitute the first major item. These include BES as one of the priority topics, and especially construction of TES (Complementary Pension System) and its integration with severance pay. Steps towards increasing BES fund amounts and allowing individuals younger than 18 to have BES contracts are other topics under this item. We will also have important tasks in terms of takaful, which is closely monitored by our Association. Priority tasks concerning takaful will include revision of the legislation, ‘Preparation of the Supervision and Regulation Guide’ for takaful, and establishment of a ‘Takaful Reinsurance Fund’ which was recently raised again by Mr. Berat Albayrak, Minister of Treasury and Finance. Our second major item will consist of topics underlined in 2020-2024 Strategy Document. We attach special importance to projects that will prepare us for the insurance of the future, such as digitalization and more effective use of data analytics,” Benli said.

“During COVID-19, we have been an active and dynamic market that produces solutions”

Benli emphasized that inclusion of non-life and life and pension segments in the agenda of our Government via higher policy documents as of 2019 was a significant opportunity for the insurance market. He said that this opportunity would be used efficiently towards improving the non-bank financial sector. “Establishment of SEDDK will influence the synergy and productive communication between the public authority and insurance market, which will yield fruits in the coming term. During COVID-19, we have been an active and dynamic market that produces solutions. Together, we have experienced the benefits digitalization provides for our market in difficult times,” he added.

“We will be a stronger market with much higher reputation”

Highlighting that harmony, cooperation and common sense lie at the heart of his management approach, Benli finalized his speech as follows: “As a market that makes decisions with common sense and works towards implementing those decisions in harmony and cooperation with the target of providing effective solutions, insurance market will have much stronger relations with the public authorities and other stakeholders. Thanks to this management approach, a much stronger insurance market with much higher reputation will become a more achievable, as a target we all wish to realize.”