Corporate News
Sammy Makove, IRA chief executive addresses stakeholders at a past
meeting in Nairobi. The Insurance Regulatory Authority has fined APA
Insurance Sh200,000 for signing up unlicensed brokers to sell the firm’s
products. PHOTO | ANN KAMONI |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
By DAVID HERBLING
In Summary
- The insurance markets regulator established that APA Insurance last year used unlicensed agents to sell, solicit and negotiate its policy covers in contravention of the law.
- Corporate Insurance, First Assurance and Monarch Insurance were warned by IRA in the same report to stop undercutting their rivals — charging lower than the approved minimum premiums for insurance policies.
- APA is ranked Kenya’s sixth largest insurance firm controlling premiums totalling Sh2.7 billion as at March 2014, which gives it a market share of 6.3 per cent.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has fined
APA Insurance Sh200,000 for signing up unlicensed brokers to sell the
firm’s products.
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The insurance markets regulator established that APA
Insurance last year used unlicensed agents to sell, solicit and
negotiate its policy covers in contravention of the law.
“A penalty of Sh200,000 was imposed on the insurer
(APA) for dealing with unlicensed insurance agents,” said Sammy Makove,
IRA chief executive in the regulator’s 2013 annual report.
The amount, which is prescribed in law, pales in
comparison to APA’s total asset base of Sh13.2 billion as at December
2013. According to the Insurance Act, it is an offence for an
underwriter to engage brokers who have not been registered by the IRA.
APA now joins the bad books of the regulator as
companies that have been penalised for failing to comply with statutory
laws and regulations.
Corporate Insurance, First Assurance and Monarch
Insurance were warned by IRA in the same report to stop undercutting
their rivals — charging lower than the approved minimum premiums for
insurance policies.
APA is ranked Kenya’s sixth largest insurance firm
controlling premiums totalling Sh2.7 billion as at March 2014, which
gives it a market share of 6.3 per cent.
APA was formed in 2003 after the merger of the
general businesses of Apollo Insurance and Pan Africa General Insurance.
The firm’s net profit nearly tripled to 492.5 million in the period to
December compared to Sh185.6 million a year earlier despite a surge in
claims.
APA Insurance paid Sh1.97 billion as compensation
to the Kenya Airports Authority for the inferno that gutted the
international terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in
Nairobi.
The firm owns a 34 per cent stake in Reliance Insurance Tanzania and 40 per cent shareholding in Gordon Court Ltd.
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