Daily Times

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), to strengthen the regulatory regime for distribution of insurance through corporate insurance agents, including bancassurance has notified the Corporate Insurance Agents Regulations, 2020.

The regulations also include code of conduct for corporate insurance agents of insurance companies to clearly define their role and responsibilities while dealing with the policyholders, said a press release issued by SECP here.

The regulations aimed at curtailing the issue of mis-selling and ensure provision of maximum and clear information regarding company’s term and conditions of an insurance policy. The regulations also include measures to promote technology driven modes of corporate insurance agents. To protect policy holders’ rights, the Regulations require corporate insurance agents including banks to ensure provision of clear and detailed disclosures to potential policyholders/customers.

The after-sales callback confirmation process has been improved and a basic script

of callback confirmation has been included in regulations. The regulations also introduced an automatic commission claw-back provision. Product structure and bank’s remuneration have been further aligned to policyholder’s interest through rationalization of commission rates and introduction of minimum premium allocation rates.

Other areas addressed in the regulations included, promotion of digitalization, encouraging suitable product mix, provision of bilingual policy documents to policyholders, increased communication with the policyholders through SMS and emails, enhanced disclosure requirements including showing audio-visual clip of insurance product to policyholders, enhanced training requirements etc.

The Corporate Insurance Agents Regulations, 2020 have been uploaded on SECP’s website and are available at following web address: https://www.secp.gov.pk/document/notification-s-r-o-1304/?wpdmdl=40906&refresh=5fd1effd7badd1607593981.

Mango’s export:

The Ministry of Commerce has said that the export of local Mango increased from $ 104 million in 2019-20 from $78 million in the previous year 2018-19.

The main markets for Pakistan’s export are United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Oman and Saudi Arabia, said a press release issued by ministry of Commerce here.

The Ministry of Commerce hosted a consultative session on the issues pertaining to exports of Mango on today, via video-link. The session was attended by Advisor to Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood. Razak Dawood advised the TDAP to double its efforts for marketing Pakistani mangoes abroad. Both public and private sector were represented.

The participants included Chairman of Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) Waheed Ahmad, farmers, and exporters of mangoes. The officials of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR), and Department of Plant Protection (DPP) were also present.

After a brief presentation by the Agro Wing of Commerce Division, the participants noted with appreciation that Mangoes export is maintaining a positive trajectory and Pakistani Mangoes are now getting better prices as compared to previous years. The meeting also discussed in detail all bottlenecks being faced by growers and exporters of Mangoes. The main issues identified were meeting the compliance requirements, high freight charges, lack of cold storage facilities at the airports and insufficient water/vapour treatment facilities.

After extensive discussions, it was agreed that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) will examine all the legal issues for operationalizing the already-imported Vapour Heat Treatment Plant, presently lying at the Expo Centre Karachi. It was also agreed that the MOC will focus on exploring new markets and obtain tariff concessions for export of Mangoes.

It was agreed that efforts will be made to establish cold storage areas on airport and shipping ports. It was also agreed that the Ministry of Aviation and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be approached for reserving a dedicated area for mango consignments. The CAA will also be approached to install bigger scanners for scanning the consignments instead of loading and unloading of small crates. It was also agreed that that establishment of a Mango Development Council will be explored which will have representation from all stakeholders, including farmers, traders, cool chains representatives, research institutes, etc.