Dr Schanz, Alms and Company Chairman and Principal Partner Dr Kai Uwe Schanz addressing dignitaries during the annual Multaqa Qatar Conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel yesterday.
DOHA: Abdulrahman Al Shaibi, Managing Director and board member of the QFC Authority, has said that a vibrant insurance sector is key for a strong economy.
Addressing the opening session of 7th Annual Multaqa Qatar conference here yesterday, he noted this is particularly important to Qatar and its long-term vision of building a broadly diversified knowledge economy.
Insurance can be viewed as a prerequisite to effective corporate lending through the banking system because it can prevent businesses from suffering life-threatening liquidity and solvency problems in case of major insured losses. The risk pooling properties of insurance effectively facilitate commercial transactions and the economically vital provision of credit by mitigating losses.
Al Shaibi said insurance sector helps accumulate huge amounts of capital and, therefore, is a core element of any modern economy’s funding system. Their usually long-term investment horizon makes insurers a particularly beneficial player in financial markets and indispensable sources of long-term finance for both private businesses and governments. This crucial role in financial inter mediation is particularly relevant to countries which are in the process of developing broader and deeper domestic capital markets. Against this backdrop, the QFC Authority’s aspirations in insurance fit well with our vision of Qatar becoming a leading asset management hub.
The management of funds set aside to meet future policyholder claims makes the insurance industry one of the world’s largest institutional investor groups. In addition, more recently, reinsurers have started investing third-party funds in insurance-linked activities such as property catastrophe underwriting, Al Shaibi said.
The QFC Managing Director said more than 170 international and local companies have been awarded licences to operate in and from the QFC to date. Among those are local, regional and global leaders such as Allianz, AIG, Aon, AXA, Daman Health Insurance, Marsh,QIC International, SEIB Insurance and Reinsurance, Zurich, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, EFG Hermes, Goldman Sachs, Qatar Holding and Qatar First Investment Bank.
The Peninsula
