insurancenews-tr

Telling that Private Pension System had grown in real terms but good return could not be generated Yapı Kredi Emeklilik General Manager Taylan Türkölmez said that an expansion was required on fund side for a healthy growth.

Yapı Kredi Emeklilik General Manager Taylan Türkölmez said that Private Pension System (BES) had grown in real terms in year 2011 but the industry could not generate return. Reminding that the industry had reached 14.3 billion TL on fund size on a growth of 20 percent Türkölmez said “In a year when the return on funds was approximately zero, we can say that the industry has grown without looking in the details. If we have grown by 19 percent on average then we have really grown in real terms but this is also a truth that the industry did not make good return on average.” Türkölmez emphasized that the healthy growth of the industry could be possible by an expansion on fund side. While evaluating 2011 Türkölmez also shared his expectations on 2012 and his opinions on the industry. Read more… »

Telling that promotional material should not be made out of insurance policies, Insurance Agencies Executive Committee Vice President Hüseyin Kasap said “A firm selling cream offers free personal accident insurance policy. On the other hand some banks give 20 percent bonus to those who have an insurance policy made. All of these are undermining the industry which has insurance as its real job.” A meeting has been held by Kayseri Chamber of Commerce (KTO) Insurance Professioal Committee on the title “The Changes Introduced by Insurance Code no: 5684”. Speaking at the meeting, Insurance Agencies Executive Committee Vice President Hüseyin Kasap said that performing insurance was put under a certain discipline with this legislation. Telling that everybody was insurance agency before the legislation that took effect in 2007, Kasap said ‘For you to become an insurance agency, it was enough to know the regional manager of an insurance company. But after this legislation took effect, many conditions such as training, experience, financial adequacy and having a separate office started to be looked for.” Read more… »

Allianz released a bulletin regarding the risks most frequently met in winter season. Allianz Financial Affairs Director Solmaz Altın provided the following information on the bulletin: “A significant part of our business is to manage the risks which our insured parties might meet. We are playing an active role as their partner in risk management and signing leading and innovative works in accident prevention and road security. For a period of over 40 years, we are presenting consultancy also covering driving safety in our research center in Germany for automobile expertise. Until today we have provided support for many security developments including compulsory safety belt usage in the countries where we operate.”

Emphasizing that Allianz was the biggest global automobile insurer with over 50 million insured cars Altın said “Globally we are organizing road security initiatives an activities. These programs cover a large scale with driver trainings, child activities, research on driving safety and sharing of this knowledge.”

Sompo Japan Sigorta is providing security to adrenaline addicts securing sports such as mountain climbing, air, motor and skiing with “Extreme Sports Travel Insurance”. Sompo Japan Sigorta has launched “Extreme Sports Travel Insurance” securing holiday-makers who love adrenaline.

The product attracts attention for being a travel insurance product securing sports as motor sports, air sports, mountain climbing and skiing. The objective of the product is to provide medical treatment possibility in case of an accident that the insured party might face regarding extreme sports. Additionally the product presents many provisions such as medical transfer, legal consultancy, medical consultancy, communication of urgent messages and bail regarding legal processes. In the announcement by Sompo Japan Sigorta, it was told that policy holders would be safe both domestically and in foreign countries as the product also covered the search and rescue expenditures. It was also announced that the policy could be used in visa processes as it includes the 30 thousand dollar medical treatment provision compulsory in Schengen states.”

Applications started for Insurance Consciousness 1st Short Film Contest organized by Prime Minister’s Office Undersecretary of Treasury. In the Strategic Plan of the Undersecretary covering 2009 to 2013, it was proposed that a strategy for building consciousness and promotion strategy was prepared regarding promotion of insurance. The short film contest organized in this context has appeared under the framework of “Insurance Consciousness Building and Promotion Strategy”. Read more… »

Turkish Insurance Institute Foundation (TSEV) is going on with organizing Short Term Training Programs. In this context, trainings have been held under names of General View of Health Insurance Practices with Examples from Turkey and the World on January 17 and Transport Insurances and Liabilities on January 18. The new trainings to take place in the training program during January are Damage Department and Customer and Business Partner (Agency-Expert-Repair Shop-Assistance Service) Relations and Management in Insurance training which will take place on January 25 and Management of Periodical Accounts in Shared and Unshared Treaties on January 31.

Yapı Kredi denied the news in Habertürk newspaper that Zurich Sigorta applied for acquisition of Yapı Kredi Sigorta, an affiliate of Yapı Kredi. In the announcement made by Yapı Kredi to Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), it was said “It was learned by our Bank that articles took place on some news websites on internet sourced on a daily newspaper article that one of the affiliates of our Bank Yapı Kredi Sigorta A.Ş. was applied for by Zurich Sigorta and an offer was made to Yapı Kredi’s management on this issue. The referred article is not reflecting the truth and there is no decision taken or any sales process performed by our Bank’s board.” On the news that Zurich Sigorta made an offer, Yapı Kredi Sigorta shares rose to maximum price of 13.80 TL on a premium of 10.76 percent.

Taking a solid step in its investments opening its first HP Solution and Experience Center in Europe in Istanbul in the last month of 2011, HP is sustaining its investment in post-sales investments with insurance service. In this context HP Pavilion or Envy laptop computers bought between September 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012 are insured for a period of 1 year for free by HP.

HP offers protection opportunity to consumers against being stolen, breaking down and breaking down due to contact with liquid. Protecting the consumers against bad surprises HP’s insurance service will be available for HP Pavilion and HP Envy laptop computers bought from HP Authorized Sales Points or Turkcell Communication Centers. haberler.com

Cyber-attacks are forming a serious threat for companies due to their financial load on companies such as lawsuits, the damage of the brand, repair of the software and recovery. According to Annual Cost Research of Cyber Crimes by Ponemon Institute, the damage caused by these crimes annually averages 5.9 million dollar. The losses caused by the attacks are changing between 1.5 million and 36.5 million dollar annually. Insurance companies protect institutions against damages caused by cyber-attacks. Global Information Security Survey of PricewaterhouseCoopers searched the insurance level of institutions against attacks in virtual environment. 46 percent of the contributors responded to the question “Is the electronic data and customer records of your company insured against being stolen?” saying yes. PwC’s survey has been conducted for the first time thus providing no result on whether the rate of being insured grew or not. But the results point at increasing consciousness regarding cyber-crime threat.

Mary K. Pratt / COMPUTERWORLD

In spite of the fact that Turkish economy will slow down this year and the crisis in Europe, the expectation is that Private Pension System (BES) will continue to grow this year while it is forecast that the total fund size of the system will get close to 20 billion TL.

Celebrating its 8th birthday in Turkey last October Private Pension Fund (BES) showed a successful performance last year. According to data of Pension Monitoring Center (EGM), the total number of contributors in the system got close to 2.7 million. Total fund size exceeded 14.3 billion TL. BES had a good year in 2011 also affected by the economic growth but its performance in the new year is wondered. 2012 will differ from the previous year as a year when the conditions become relatively harder. The expectation that the growth rate of Turkey will fall below 4 percent and the debt crisis in Europe will naturally be affecting BES this year. But it is expected that this effect will not be like the one in the first quarter of 2009 and there will be growth in the net number of contributors added to the system. Read more… »