Page 7 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

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Biggest threat during the

pandemic: Being uninsured

Ceyhan Hancıoğlu, General Manager of HDI Sigorta: “We must do
everything we can to make sure that our people are not left uninsured;
this is one of the most important duties of our agents”

How does coronavirus pandemic impact Turk- the future, make good use of and take lessons from
ish economy and insurance sector in parallel? these days and shape our future accordingly.
Could you share your opinions with us?
How can the risk of continuation of the pan-
We are going through difficult times. We are faced demic impact the sector members and reinsur-
with a problem that does not only affect us, our ers? How would you evaluate this?
country, our region; but something that impacts
the whole world. I have been in this sector for 30 Compared to the rest of the world, Turkish insur-
years, I have not seen such a crisis before. Turkey ance market has not suffered from major devel-
is located in a highly strategic position, and has opments. Turkey has not experienced any direct
overcome many economic crises before. But this is impacts as there were fewer events to be impacted
not only a financial crisis, this is different. There- by the pandemic and they were not very big. But
fore, this is a crisis of safety, a crisis of health. many organizations across the world had to be
postponed to next year.
During these times, health of our people, our
friends, our employees, our agents, our families is A lot of big events and global organizations were
more important than anything else. But unfortu- scheduled for summer including sports organiza-
nately, the virus has dragged insurers into an un- tions, art and musical events, global events. These
precedentedly big crisis. In the past, we used to make an important impact on the insurance mar-
be more comfortable during crises as insurers. We ket. We are working with the same reinsurers,
lived the luxury of feeling the crises at later phas- and they were affected negatively. Consequently,
es. But, it was different this time. Insurers directly this will impose a negative impact on the market.
found themselves in the middle of this crisis. This For reinsurance, renewals for markets other than
will have serious financial impacts. Far Eastern markets are done in December. Far
Eastern renewals are done in April-July. So, this
We are taking several precautions to face this, market may be experiencing direct impacts at the
but those precautions do not produce swift results. moment. Unfortunately, reinsurers will show nega-
Since people prioritize their health over everything tive reactions concerning their renewal terms with
else nowadays, it takes some time to receive any the aim of recovering from the market conditions.
reactions from policyholders. But this is a pro- If the conditions persist, reinsurance negotiations
cess. It would be better to see the glass half full. will challenge many other markets at the end of
It would be my advice to everyone. These days will the year, including Turkey. But my personal ex-
pass. This is our motto in the company now. We pectation and feeling is that these conditions will
need to think that these days will pass, prepare for not continue until the third quarter for Turkey and
nearby geography. I believe that reinsurance mar-