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Pandemic threatens Asia-Pacific’s progress on global development goals, says ADB

Developing Asia’s extreme poverty rate – or the proportion of its people living on less than $1.90 a day – would have fallen to 2.6% in 2020 from 5.2% in 2017 without COVID-19, but the crisis likely pushed last year’s projected rate higher by about 2 percentage points, ADB simulations showed.
The figure could even be higher considering the inequalities in areas like health, education and work disruptions that have deepened as the COVID-19 crisis disrupted mobility and stalled economic activity, the ADB said in a flagship report on the region.

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Haiti to receive a record payout of $40M from parametric catastrophe insurer CCRIF

CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall events to Caribbean and Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered.

It is the world’s first regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing.
This payout,representing CCRIF’s largest single payout to date. has activated the full coverage limit under the country’s parametric insurance policy for earthquakes for the 2021/22 policy year.

As CCRIF’s insurance policies are parametric, payouts are made within 14 days of an event.

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Post LIC IPO, 60 pc of insurance biz to be with listed entities: FinMin official

The insurance sector, over the two decades since the introduction of competition and regulation, has matured with 69 insurers today as against only eight in 2000. ‘A majority of these have crossed their initial breakeven phase. Once the proposed listing of LIC happens, about 60 per cent of the insurance industry business would be with listed entities. The sector as a whole has been growing at a pace significantly higher than that of the overall economy, additional secretary in the finance ministry Amit Agarwal said

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India says to exceed emission cut targets, further reduction hinges on climate fund

“From 2005 levels, India’s carbon emissions fell 24% by 2016 – in the space of 11 years. Between 2016 and 2030 – in a span of 14 years – we’ve to reduce emissions by just 9-11%, but it will be definitely much more than that,” he said. In all probability, by 2025, non-fossil fuel sources would account for 40% of India’s power generation, Rameshwar Prasad Gupta, of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change said.

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China allows couples third child amid demographic crisis

The shift to the two-child rule led to a temporary bump in the numbers of births but its effects soon wore off and total births continued to fall because many women continued to decide against starting families. Japan, Germany, and some other wealthy countries face the same challenge of having fewer workers to support aging populations. However, they can draw on investments in factories, technology, and foreign assets, while China is a middle-income country with labor-intensive farming and manufacturing.

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China’s planned anti-sanctions law for Hong Kong unsettles financial sector

Under the planned law, if financial institutions in Hong Kong implement U.S. sanctions, they may be exposed to legal risk in Hong Kong for doing so, financial sector executives and lawyers said.

“Many foreign multinational companies are asking about the impact of the anti-foreign sanctions law, especially international banks and financial institutions,” said Shaun Wu, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Paul Hastings.

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FDI proposal for bank-promoted insurance firm to be vetted by RBI, Irdai: Govt notification

”Applications for foreign direct investment in private banks having joint venture or subsidiary in insurance sector may be addressed to the Reserve Bank for consideration in consultation with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), in order to ensure that the limit of foreign investment applicable for the insurance sector as specified in serial number F. 8.1 and F. 8.2 is not breached,” the notification said.

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