THE Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) is seeking more disclosures from regulated entities to assess if they are offering climate change and sustainability-related initiatives.
Discussions on climate change and sustainability took centre stage at this week’s Organisation for Eastern and Southern Africa Insurers (OESAI) Conference and Annual General Meeting held in Victoria Falls.
The insurance sector, a critical driver of global economies, is being encouraged to offer more climate change-related policies to their clients.
Speaking at the conference, Ipec commissioner Grace Muradzikwa said as the regulator, she felt it was time for something to be done about climate change in the industry.
She said this would call for more disclosures for players to indicate what they are doing in line with climate change.
“So, there are a number of frameworks in place just like AI (artificial intelligence) and we are currently exchanging notes with regulators,” Muradzikwa said.
“And for climate change, we are at a stage where we are actually developing an application for them. So, we are going to know the discussion later when we develop the application.
“But definitely, we are looking at increased disclosures for regulated entities. We feel that if we call for more disclosures … you are going to have to start doing something about this, on climate change and all that. So we will be asking for more disclosures in terms of reporting and in Zimbabwe we have started some training (programmes).”
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Muradzikwa highlighted the importance of sustainability reporting and noted that Ipec is already taking steps in this direction.
“I know that in Zimbabwe, we have already started training. I know the RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) has taken that lead and we are a little bit behind. As Ipec, we have also signed the Nairobi declaration,” she said.
“The Nairobi Declaration is a commitment by African insurance industry leaders to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Together with 11 other institutions, signatories to the declaration sought to bring together senior leaders to accelerate solutions to major sustainability challenges — ranging from climate change and ecosystem degradation to poverty and social inequality - particularly in a post-Covid-19 world.”
On the state of preparedness to regulate the use of AI, Muradzikwa acknowledged both the potential benefits and concerns associated with AI.
“We do not always appreciate what is happening. We also appreciate that it’s going to be very important in terms of improving our process efficiencies,” the Ipec boss said.
“It’s going to be very important in terms of improving customer experience. I think we appreciate all of those things. We do appreciate, as regulators, the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We appreciate that. I think when you’re asking questions; it's not that we don't appreciate. We appreciate it.”
However, as a regulator, she said they were concerned about implementing such innovations.
“We are concerned about a number of things. And maybe let me say that I think, first and foremost, let’s remind each other that you must always be able to explain your decisions.
“So, I think AI brings with it what we are calling unexplainable decisions. So when we ask you, how did you make these decisions? We're not going to come and ask a machine..
“We’re going to come and ask you. So, you must look at artificial intelligence as a tool that you’re using that you also need to be able to understand. So, the concerns that we have as regulators, I think they are growing.”
