Page 11 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

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If we look at the earthquake disaster that occurred in our coun- insurance rates. (About 20 billion TL) As for paying this, our sector
try in the past period and affected many people from the per- has no problems...
spective of the insurance sector, what would you like to say?
How does the process of obtaining the claims of the insured
As insurers, we exist for these days. We are foul-weather friends... work? Are the applications that will facilitate the process being
We know that these disasters are not the last, I wish they had never implemented? What should the insured do to reach the insur-
happened, but unfortunately, they will happen again. But we should ance companies fastest and receive the coverage payouts?
raise insurance rates even higher by learning from this disaster to-
day, as we did before, and we are trying to do whatever needs to Within the framework of the decisions taken by the SEDDK here,
be done about it. Because the more we can increase the insurance we have accelerated our operations and investigations and started
rate to higher levels, we will reduce the economic burden that such making payments to our insured without any situation, such as re-
disasters on our state will cause. questing a second examination - report.

Since the first moment of the disaster, the insurance sector has We have automatically extended the policy renewal date in the
been trying to heal the region’s wounds by banding together. earthquake zone until May, the end date of the State of Emergency.
What is your role and support in this process as a Union? We also have companies that have raised the period by one year.
No details, such as collections or debts, are considered here in all
Our insurance sector is located at a very central point in disaster individual and commercial policies.
management and has a great responsibility. We are working with
all our might to heal the wounds quickly and ensure economic sus- For those who want to be newly insured, we have to decide as part
tainability. Actions were taken quickly under the leadership of the of our job so that the value to be insured must be undamaged and
SEDDK, and we started paying damages, especially to our individu- work like risks to issue a policy. It will also take a certain amount
al insured, without waiting for notifications. More than 1000 of our of time in this current environment. Our insurance companies will
sector professionals, mobile service points of our companies, and start cutting new regional policies by their risk conditions after a
more than 200 experts work in the region. while. We want to underline again that there is no shortage of those
who have a policy and want to renew it...
“We anticipate that the insured damage In this process, we saw how many insurance products, espe-
in the region will be around $1 billion at cially DASK, provide excellent protection and the importance

current insurance rates.” of raising insurance awareness in our country. What messages
will you convey to our readers in this context?

On the other hand, in such a large and wide geographical disaster, We have no shortage when we compare our sector with insurance
we, as our insurance sector, have been working intensively to heal in developed countries. We have a surplus as a qualification, as a
the wounds since the first day. To date, we have provided financial preparation, and as a human resource. Because unfortunately, our
assistance to the Red Crescent, AFAD, and NGOs, while providing geography is in a place that faces a lot of disaster-like situations,
in-kind assistance to our citizens affected by the earthquake in the and therefore we are companies that work more risk-oriented. As a
fields of energy, search and rescue, housing, food, and basic needs sector, we have the power to cope with the pandemic, Elazığ, Izmir
distribution with our companies, and we continue to do so. In addi- earthquakes, forest fires, and floods in the last 3-year period; just as
tion, our insurance companies with foreign capital operating in our we have coped with disasters such as floods, we also have the power
country also show their support with financial and in-kind assis- to cope with the big earthquake disaster we are experiencing today.
tance from their global operations. Of course, we will not forget our suffering; we have lost our lives,
and our sadness is severe. But insurance is of great importance for
What is the extent of insured damage in the region? our assets. We have the collateral power to restore all insured assets
to their pre-earthquake state.
There are a total of 4 million policies containing earthquake cov-
erage in the region. Part of this, around 450 -500 thousand, is our Suppose our insured citizens think that the construction costs of
insurance policy, and the insurance rate in this area is 17 percent. their own house are higher. In that case, they can also get additional
Apart from DASK, we have about 500 thousand housing insurance earthquake coverage, which we call discretionary fire, through the
policies and an insurance rate of about 20 percent. Unfortunately, ingenuity of our agents in the private sector. In this case, in fact,
these rates are very low. I wish these rates would be even higher the money received becomes relatively high. So you have as much
so that we could heal the wounds of more of our people by paying chance of getting it from the private sector as you get from DASK.
more damages. There are also policyholders in our commercial On the other hand, our friends working in the regional directorates
enterprises and industrial facilities, and our damage detection stud- of our companies in the region, our agents, our experts, and our
ies are continuing here. We are also trying to be on their side by friends in banks have suffered the loss of life. We are so sorry, and
paying advance payments to insured businesses while the processes our pain is severe.
are ongoing. We also have agencies that are in the position of our most important
stakeholders and have lost their workplaces due to the earthquake.
Due to the structure of our insurance sector, it is ready for today For this purpose, our companies quickly began to create support
long in advance. Our sector has the strength and collateral structure packages that include commission advance, non-refundable sup-
to meet this earthquake and the earthquakes and disasters that will port, relocation support, and rental support. We want to thank all
happen afterward. In this sense, there is no problem at all. The big- our companies because our sector is strong under the roof of unity
gest shortcoming here is the issue of insurance... We anticipate the and togetherness, which is significant for the wounds to be healed
insured damage in the region will be around $1 billion at current as soon as possible.