IAIS Application Paper on the Regulation and Supervision of Mutuals, Cooperatives and Community Based Organisations.

The paper, published on September 20th, provides guidance on how the IAIS’s Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) can be applied in a proportionate manner when supervising MCCOs thus avoiding unnecessary supervisory barriers to their market access. To help supervisors   understand the typical nature of MCCOs and the context in which this guidance should be applied the Application Paper describes the MCCO sector and its typical features.  

The paper highlights the dual role that MCCOs can play in an insurance market both as an underwriter of the risk as well as providing administrative, educational and distribution services. As a distribution channel, the ability of MCCOs to operate independently as stand-alone entities in remote and rural areas without long distribution lines makes them a potentially important business model for improving access to insurance.

The Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), as the IAIS´s implementation partner on financial inclusion, was a member of the drafting group. The A2iis on the ground experiences working with supervisors as well as a supervisor only WebEx call organised by the A2ii on the topic as part of its Consultation Call series were key inputs to the drafting process.