Page 9 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

7

Atilla Benli reelected as the President of the Insurance Association of Turkey

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 As-
sembly, 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 wor-
thy 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. again by Mr. Berat Albayrak, Minister of Treasury and
As of 12 June 2020, total number of participants exceeded Finance. Our second major item will consist of topics un-
12 million and total fund size reached nearly 146 billion derlined in 2020-2024 Strategy Document. We attach
TL in BES (Private Pension System) and OKS (Auto-En- special importance to projects that will prepare us for the
rollment System). Despite providing guarantee for giant insurance of the future, such as digitalization and more
projects such as 3rd Airport, Eurasia Tunnel, and Osman- effective use of data analytics,” Benli said.
gazi 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 “During COVID-19, we have been an active and
end of 2018, penetration rate of global insurance sector dynamic market that produces solutions”
is 6 percent, but penetration rate of insurance market in
Turkey is only around 2 percent. Despite being the 19th Benli emphasized that inclusion of non-life and life and
biggest economy in the world, our country has still not pension segments in the agenda of our Government via
reached its true potential in terms of insurance market. higher policy documents as of 2019 was a significant op-
Currently, our insurance market ranks 39th globally. With portunity for the insurance market. He said that this op-
the new term, our macro target would be to carry our in- portunity would be used efficiently towards improving the
surance and pension market to its deserved position in the non-bank financial sector. “Establishment of SEDDK will
world. As TSB, we will shape all our activities and stra- influence the synergy and productive communication be-
tegic organizational moves with the aim of reaching this tween the public authority and insurance market, which
main target.” will yield fruits in the coming term. During COVID-19,
we have been an active and dynamic market that produc-
“We have two main items on our agenda for the es solutions. Together, we have experienced the benefits
coming term” digitalization provides for our market in difficult times,”
he added.

Benli also announced TSB’s agenda for the coming term.
“We have two major items on our agenda for the coming “We will be a stronger market with much higher
term. Precautions and actions defined in policy documents reputation”
for insurance and pension markets constitute the first ma-
jor item. These include BES as one of the priority top- Highlighting that harmony, cooperation and common
ics, and especially construction of TES (Complementary sense lie at the heart of his management approach, Benli
Pension System) and its integration with severance pay. finalized his speech as follows: “As a market that makes
Steps towards increasing BES fund amounts and allowing decisions with common sense and works towards imple-
individuals younger than 18 to have BES contracts are menting those decisions in harmony and cooperation with
other topics under this item. We will also have important the target of providing effective solutions, insurance mar-
tasks in terms of takaful, which is closely monitored by our ket will have much stronger relations with the public au-
Association. Priority tasks concerning takaful will include thorities and other stakeholders. Thanks to this manage-
revision of the legislation, ‘Preparation of the Supervision ment approach, a much stronger insurance market with
and Regulation Guide’ for takaful, and establishment of much higher reputation will become a more achievable, as
a ‘Takaful Reinsurance Fund’ which was recently raised a target we all wish to realize.”