Enhancing the role of Insurance in providing Financial Protection - 15 October 2021

The first session will examine institutional arrangements for insurance regulation and supervision, and how regulatory and supervisory approaches can be adapted to leverage the opportunities presented by emerging technologies and developments in international reinsurance markets.

The second session will explore some of the challenges and potential solutions of insurance in protecting against catastrophe risks, such as extreme weather, large-scale cyber-attacks and infectious disease outbreaks and how to reinforce business strategies.

Ms. Flore-Anne Messy
Acting Deputy Director, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (‘OECD’)

Ms. Flore-Anne Messy is Acting Deputy Director of the OECD Directorate for Financial and Entreprise Affairs and Executive Secretary of the OECD International Network on Financial Education (INFE). As Deputy Director, she is responsible for the OECD Investment Division, the Financial Markets Division and the Consumer Finance, Insurance and Pensions Division as well as cross cutting issues such as infrastructure and digital finance.

She joined the OECD in June 2000 to develop the activities of the Insurance and Private Pensions Committee. After several years working on the development of pensions, insurance and financial market policy issues, she launched and steered the OECD work on financial literacy and consumer protection (including the OECD/INFE, PISA financial literacy exercises, the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection and the secretariat of FinCoNet). From 2016, she headed successively the OECD Insurance Private Pensions and Financial Market Division and the Consumer Finance, Insurance and Pensions Division.

Prior to the OECD she worked as a consultant and auditor for banks and insurance companies at Deloitte Touche Tomatsu. She graduated from the Institute of Political Studies of Paris and received her thesis in international economics from University Pantheon-Sorbonne of Paris.

Mr. Dhanesswurnath Thakoor
Chief Executive | Financial Services Commission, Mauritius (‘FSC’)

Mr Dhanesswurnath Thakoor has now been the Chief Executive of the FSC for over a year. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Information Technology, Electronics and Systems Automation from Polytech Lille - France (Ex Ecole Universitaire d’Ingénieurs de Lille) and an MBA with Specialisation in Finance. He has over 25 years of Central Banking experience.

Mr Thakoor has been at the forefront in the establishment of a modern regulatory framework of a spectrum of innovative financial products and services such as peer-to-peer lending, special purpose funds and robotic and artificial intelligence-enabled advisory services, amongst others. He also spearheaded, in his capacity as Chief Executive, a number of digitalisation-driven projects amongst which the FSC One platform and now driving the National Insurance Claims Database project. Prior to joining the FSC Mauritius, he held the post of Assistant Director - Payments Systems and the Mauritius Credit Information Bureau (‘MCIB’) at the Bank of Mauritius (“BoM”). He was also a member of the internal Fintech Committee and a member of the National Regulatory Sandbox License technical committee at the BoM.

In his capacity as Chief Executive, Mr Thakoor represents the FSC Mauritius in a number of international regulatory bodies and committees including the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the International Association of Insurers Supervisors (IAIS), the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Committee on Insurance, Securities and Non-Banking Financial Authorities (CISNA).

Mr Thakoor is a member of the Core Group for AML/CFT, the National AML/CFT Committee, the Interagency Coordination Committee, the National Regulatory Sandbox Licence Committee, the National Sanctions Committee, the National Committee on Corporate Governance, the FSC Regional Centre of Excellence Governing Board and the Financial Reporting Council.

Mrs. Bharatee Bholah-Bissonauth
Senior Manager | Insurance-Authorisation | FSC

Mrs. Bharatee Bholah-Bissonauth joined the FSC in 2003 and currently, holds the position of Senior Manager in the Insurance and Pensions cluster.She has over 17 years of experience in the regulatory and compliance field. She is currently overseeing the Authorisation arm of the Insurance Cluster.

Bharatee has been active in the development of policy and legislation governing the financial services sector. She has been involved in several key cross-sector projects related to Corporate Governance and AML/CFT. She has also extensive experience in the prudential and market conduct supervision of insurance entities.She represented the FSC in the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes for Accounting and Auditing in 2011. Furthermore, she led the Insurance Sector working group for the National Risk Assessment on Anti-Money Laundering for 2 years (2017-2019). Bharatee is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds an MBA from the Heriot-Watt University.

Mr. Timothy Bishop
Head of Insurance, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs | OECD

Mr. Timothy Bishop is the Head of the Insurance Unit at the OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs. He is responsible for managing the OECD’s Insurance and Private Pensions Committee (IPPC), which brings together insurance sector policymakers and regulators from OECD and non-OECD countries.

In recent years, Mr. Bishop led the OECD’s Horizontal Project on sustainable infrastructure and OECD work on infrastructure finance. From 2014-16, he was acting head of the Financial Affairs Division, which supports the OECD’s Committee on Financial Markets, Insurance and Private Pensions Committee and their sub-bodies, including the Working Party on Private Pensions and the Task Force on Institutional Investors and Long-term Financing. Prior to this role, he led IPPC insurance work for many years.

Prior to joining the OECD in 2006, Mr. Bishop worked in the Financial Sector Policy Branch at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Bishop has an M. Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford and BA Honours from McGill University.

Mr. Aakash Mishra 
Assistant Director, Insurance & Pensions, Authorisation & Supervision | FSC

Mr. Aakash Mishra holds the post of Assistant Director, Insurance and Pensions, Authorisation and Supervision at the FSC  since 01 Oct 2018. Aakash reckons over 30 years of experience in the insurance sector. Aakash has worked as Branch Manager with the Life Insurance Corporation of India for 11 years (1990-2001). He then moved to the private sector as soon as the Indian insurance Industry got liberalised and it opened up for private players. He worked as the Head of policy owners services in India for Tata AIG Life Insurance Company for 9 years (2001-2009). Aakash worked in Tanzania for a period of 3 years as the General Manager of Alliance Life Assurance Limited, Tanzania (2010- 2013). In Mauritius, he was heading the Island Life Assurance Co Ltd for 5 years (2013-2018) and was the President of Insurers Association of Mauritian for 2 years (2014-2016).

Aakash has represented the FSC in various international forums and conferences held under the aegis of International Association of Insurance and International Organisation of Pension Supervisors. He presented several papers in different forums such as in the Africa Pensions Supervisor Forum held in September 2020; Annual Pensions and Retirement Summit held in December 2020 and Africa Pensions and Alternative Investments summit held in March 2021. Aakash holds a Post Graduate degree in Sciences and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. He is also a scholarship holder of the prestigious National Talent Search Examination, Government of India. He is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute of LOMA, an Associate of Toronto Centre and a Licentiate of Insurance Institute of India.

Dr. Marcelo Ramella
Director, Financial Stability Department | Bermuda Monetary Authority

Dr. Marcelo Ramella is the Director of the Financial Stability and Research Department at the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), Bermuda’s single financial sector regulator. Marcelo joined the BMA in 2005 and since then has held positions in research, policy and international affairs, moving to financial stability in 2016.

Given the salience of Bermuda’s international insurance and reinsurance sectors, he has dedicated a wealth of attention to following global developments in those markets, in particular issues that relate to innovative practices within reinsurance. He is also involved in the work of the Financial Stability Board, OECD IPPC and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). With the IAIS he is Vice Chair of the Macroprudential Committee and member of the Implementation and Assessment Committee. Until November 2017, Marcelo was the Chair of the Reinsurance Task Force. Prior to joining the BMA Marcelo held research positions in the United Kingdom with the Home Office and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Marcelo is National Public Accountant (Buenos Aires, Argentina). He has a Master in Business Administration from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), an MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a PhD in Social Psychology from the LSE. In addition, since 2005, Marcelo has been a Visiting Fellow at the LSE, where he lectures and supervises MSc students at LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science.

Mr. Kagiso Mothibi
Head, Fintech and Innovation Hub | Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa

Mr. Kagiso Mothibi leads the Fintech department at FSCA and the SA Fintech Innovation Hub, a multi-regulator initiative geared towards unpacking the implications of emerging financial technologies and crafting policies that stimulate fintech innovation and drive positive customer outcomes.

He has spent his career focused on Fintech and Digital Strategy most recently at Vodacom, where he was Executive Head of Strategy responsible for driving Fintech, mobile money, and digital transformation. Previously Kagiso worked at McKinsey, Barclays Africa, Standard Bank, and ViacomCBS where he advised clients across a range industries including Financial Services, Technology, Telecoms, Media, and Digital Transformations on matters ranging from unlocking performance to identifying the next wave of growth opportunities. Kagiso holds an MSc from Oxford University and an MBA from GIBS.

Mr. Leigh Wolfrom

Policy Analyst, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs | OECD

Mr. Leigh Wolfrom is a policy analyst in the OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs where he leads the directorate’s work on the financial management of catastrophe risk. In this role, he has provided analysis and reports to the OECD Insurance and Private Pensions on a variety of disaster risk financing issues, including the financial management of flood risk, the contribution of reinsurance markets to managing catastrophe risks, financial instruments for managing disaster risks related to climate change and potential opportunities to leverage emerging technologies to enhance insurance availability and affordability.

He also led the development of the OECD guidance on establishing disaster risk financing strategies to address the financial impacts of natural and human-made catastrophes. Prior to joining the OECD, Mr. Wolfrom worked in the Financial Sector Policy Branch at the Canadian Department of Finance and at Global Affairs Canada on international financing issues.

Mr. Wolfrom has an M.A. in International Affairs from Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (Carleton University) and a B.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia.

Mr. Hadj Mohamed Seba
CEO | Compagnie centrale de réassurance (Algeria)

Mr. Hadj Mohamed SEBA is CEO of Compagnie Centrale de Réassurance (CCR). He began his professional career in 1990 at CCR as an underwriter. In 1995, he joined the Ministry of Finance where he held the position of Deputy Director of Insurance Control and was appointed in 1999 as Director of Insurance, a position he held until February 2007, date of his appointment as CEO of CCR. Mr. SEBA also taught the “economics and insurance” module to postgraduate actuarial students at USTHB University between 1998-2000.

He has carried out and achieved several works relating to the field of insurance, including the establishment of specific reinsurance supervision system (July 2002), the initiation and implementation of 03-12 Law relating to natural disaster insurance in Algeria (August 2003), the establishment of a motor insurance guarantee fund (January 2005), initation of 06-04 Law relating to the Algerian insurance industry (February 2006), the launch of the Algeria decennial reinsurance pool (January 2009), implementation for the first time of the CCR rating process (June 2010), the launch of the Algerian special risks pool (January 2018) and the establishment of a CCR TPA subsidiary in the health insurance field (May 2018).

Mr. SEBA graduated in economics from the University of Algiers in 1987 and has a postgraduate degree in finance (specialty insurance) from the Arab Maghreb Development Finance Institute (IFID) in Tunis, awarded in 1989.

Dr. Paula Jarzabkowski

Professor of Strategic Management, University of Queensland Business School, Australia

Dr. Paula Jarzabkowski (www.paulajarzabkowski.com) is Professor of Strategic Management at University of Queensland Business School and Bayes Business School, City, University of London. Professor Jarzabkowski is an expert in insurance and reinsurance markets, having studied different aspects of the global industry, and released a range of industry reports, Masterclasses, academic papers, and a widely acclaimed book “Making a Market for Acts of God” with Oxford University Press. Her current research examines how Governments and Markets around the world can better work together to address the growing threat of natural and manmade disaster, and to increase the links between insurance and resilience.