The Acting Head of the Insurance Control Commission, Mrs. Nadine El-Habbal, attended the annual meeting of the Arab Forum of Insurance Regulatory Commissions (AFIRC), during which the participants agreed to move the Forum into an Association, hence strengthening and formalizing the collegial cooperation among regulators. The Association is now presided by the Insurance Authority of the United Arab Emirates chaired by Mr. Ebrahim Al Zaabi for a mandate of three years.

The discussions covered extensive reviews of risk-based capital models, and their consequences on insurance companies and supervisory approaches. A project on the acceptance criteria for reinsurance firms was presented and discussed in view of a joint adoption; the project focuses on local reinsurance companies and aims to promote them as part of the insurance eco-system. Separately, the recent developments and progress in the UAE market and the related actions undertaken by the Insurance Authority were presented and discussed. Mrs. El-Habbal highlighted the importance of sharing experiences on trans-national entities, and the possibility of forming panels of insurance regulators in this perspective.