Key Insurance Company Limited (Key Insurance) hosted its first annual general meeting since listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on June 14, 2017.
The company’s managing director, Sandra Masterton outlined three pillars of Key Insurance; flexibility, competitiveness and strong reinsurance support.
Flexibility
Ms. Masterton noted that Key Insurance offers five different insurance plans which allow clients to choose which plan they can afford. The company also opens six days a week to cater to customers who are pressed for time during the week. She also mentioned that the company has a policy of offering assistance to customers half an hour before opening and after closing.
Competitive
Ms. Masterton made the argument for the company’s competitiveness by indicating that the company had won nine new government tenders and retained 506 tenders despite a hypercompetitive market. The company also increases it competitiveness by offering free travel insurance to clients; Ms Masterton noted that Key Insurance was the only company to do that.
Strong Reinsurance
Ms. Masterton highlighted that Key Insurance is backed by some of the largest and financial stable reinsurance company’s internationally, with very good credit rating from A1 to A+.
Ms. Masterton then transitioned to the insurance cycle and its impact on Key Insurance. She described two cycles, a hard and a soft cycle. A soft cycle according to Ms Masterton is defined by lower insurance premiums, reduced underwriting criteria, excess capacity and increased competition; while a hard cycle is defined by increased premiums, hard underwriting criteria and less competition. Ms. Masterton noted that a soft insurance cycle started to appear in 2010, caused by excess supply in the market. The soft insurance cycle had an adverse impact on Key Insurance’s financial results as such non-motor premiums grew by 30% from 2015 to 2016 and then declined by 14.2% as at March 2017, this decline is caused by a reduction in rates.
In the latter part of her address Ms. Masterton announced that the company was undertaking a four years strategic change from 2017 to 2021. The change will include a process of renewal, growth and returning to profitability.
From 2017 to 2018 the first phase the company will focus on renewal. This will see the company focusing on improving efficiency and improving profitability. While phase two will see the company concentrating on growth and innovation in 2018-2021. During this phase the company will aim to improve customer experience, introduction new technology to support efficiency and focus on staff development. The company is currently testing a new IT platform to improve customer experience.
In closing Ms Masterton expressed “the company should return to profitability by year end 2017.”
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