Swiss Re Receives Retakaful License for Malaysia

Swiss Re has received a composite license from Bank Negara Malaysia to write Retakaful business, and has opened a dedicated Retakaful operation in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Swiss Re said the composite license will allow it to “offer Family and General Retakaful solutions to Takaful clients worldwide. The dedicated Retakaful operation in Kuala Lumpur, headed by Marcel Omar Papp, signals a clear commitment to the development of this market.”

Papp noted that Swiss Re has been offering Family Retakaful solutions in the Middle East for the past three years. He added that the “new license will allow us to consolidate and enlarge the scope of our efforts by also providing General Retakaful solutions.”

In addition he explained that, “Takaful is set to grow and we look forward to deploying our expertise and capacity to meeting the needs of existing and new clients for Shari’a (Islamic law) compliant Retakaful.”

Swiss Re also operates a separate reinsurance branch in Kuala Lumpur.

Swiss Re explained that “Takaful is a system based on the principle of mutual assistance and voluntary contribution, where risks are shared collectively and voluntarily by a group of participants. It has been developed as a Shari’a compliant alternative to conventional insurance which contains impermissible elements such as uncertainty and interest.

It involves:
— the creation of a Shari’a Supervisory Board that oversees the Takaful operations and compliance with the Shari’a;
— the creation of a mutual pool for the collection of contributions and payment of claims;
— the sharing of surplus from the mutual pool amongst participants;
— the avoidance of investment in non-Shari’a-compliant assets.

Source: Swiss Re – http://www.swissre.com

Topics Swiss Re