INTERNATIONAL risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage firm Aon Zimbabwe has been suspended from writing new business after it allegedly violated the sector’s compliance regulations, NewsDay has learnt.
Report by Bernard Mpofu
According to a notice seen by this paper, the Insurance and Pension Commission last Wednesday wrote a letter to the employee benefits firm ordering them to stop operating.
Questions sent to the insurance regulator had not yet been responded to at the time of going to print yesterday.
Aon Zimbabwe, formerly Aon Minet, according to information posted on its website, has been a member of the Aon International since 1997.
The insurance firm operates four units— its flagship Aon Risk Services, Aon Risk Management, Consulting and Reinsurance. The company writes business for several listed and other private sector firms in the country.
Information sourced indicates that the firm’s risk services division (Retail Broking) handles an estimated 25% of all Zimbabwe’s short term insurance business.
The division controls the insurance portfolios of 50% of the companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. TA Holdings owns 30% of Aon Zimbabwe.
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“We hereby advise that Aon Zimbabwe and its subsidiaries, namely Aon Benfield, Aon Risk Services, and Aon Consulting, have been suspended from taking new insurance and pension administration business with effect from January 7 2013,” reads the letter in part.
“This position has been reached after Aon Zimbabwe and its above named subsidiaries failed to comply with section 3 of Statutory Instrument 243 of 2006, section 35 of the Insurance Act [Chapter 24:07, and section 3 of Statutory Instrument 243 of 2006.
“Meanwhile, the Commission has given Aon Zimbabwe a grace period after which the suspension will be lifted should it have addressed the compliance issues. Should Aon Zimbabwe and its subsidiaries fail to address the compliance issues within the stipulated time frames, the Commission will proceed to order transfer of all pensions and insurance business to dully registered institutions to enable an orderly exit of Aon Zimbabwe and its subsidiaries from the insurance and pensions industry.”
The local insurance sector has, since dollarisation, been on a recovery path after enduring a decade long economic meltdown which ended in 2009.
IPEC last year hiked the minimum capital threshold for insurance companies to $3 million from $300 000.
There are about 26 companies in the short-term insurance sector.
