Risk-management services may soon become commonplace for local insurance companies, says the man who was hired to develop Sagicor General Insurance’s risk-management department just over seven years ago.
Marlon Graham, who is now general manager of Insurance Management and Professional Services (IMPS) Ltd, noted that Sagicor was the first local company to have such a department.
“It was just me at first. I was the entire department until about 2007 when we realized at the time that risk management was going to be a big deal.
“We started to recruit for risk management and now it is a fairly sizeable department. It ended up with seven guys in Barbados and an additional five across the Caribbean,” he told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Since then at least two more insurance firms have followed suit and Graham, who holds a Master’s degree in insurance and risk management, believes the others are not too far behind.
“It is a big deal in the United States . . . and the fact that there is a major called insurance and risk management would suggest how big a deal it actually is.
“With the CLICO fiasco, the AIG fiasco prior to that and Enron, risk management as a subject matter would have prevented a lot of the stuff from actually happening.
“We are a little bit behind the First World countries so now [that] it’s going to be a mature subject matter in First World countries, it’s going to be a new development for us here in the Caribbean,” he said.
Graham explained that risk-management services benefit both the insurance company and the insured person or business.
“Essentially what it means is the insured person would be able to lower his or her rates based on their actual individual risk as opposed to being [under] a whole blanket policy [which says] as long as you’re in a particular area, you are associated with these particular risks.”
He added that it also gives insurers “a better grasp on the risk” in a particular area. (NB)
