The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas First’s top executive yesterday said the insurance industry must lobby the Government to create a  legislative framework that will modernise many sector practices.

    Patrick Ward, Bahamas First’s president and chief executive, told Tribune Business that the global insurance industry was in an accelerated state of change. 

“A lot of companies are going to have to make a substantial investment in transferring their current operating platforms from a legacy-based platform to something that allows them to incorporate analytics and digitisation in a more proactive way,” Mr Ward said.

“That’s very time consuming, very expensive potentially. It also may require different kinds of talents, and it also requires substantial investment.

“There’s a lot of heavy lifting we have to do, and the time to do it is when we are in a position that is not an absolute crisis. There is a lot coming down the pipeline that we have to look at.”

    Mr Ward added: “One of the things we have to do as an industry in the Bahamas is to lobby the Government to take proactive steps to create a legislative framework so we can incorporate some of the modern approaches.”

One example of this, he said, would be whether there needs to be amendments to Bahamian laws that allow  for more digital processing of policy transactions.

“Do we need to develop partnerships between the government agencies and the insurance companies to allow for the transfer of data automatically over electronic platforms, which will help all of us to actually do our jobs better?” Mr Ward asked.

“On the other side of that, we just need to have a continuous dialogue on what are the things happening in more dynamic marketplaces that we can incorporate here, as it relates to legislation and industry specific changes.”