CARD’s microinsurance featured in UNISDR Global Conference

The experience of CARD Mutual Benefit Association (CARD MBA) in doing microinsurance in the country was recently featured in the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Global Platform Conference on Risk Transfer and Insurance for Resilience at Cancun, Mexico.

The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which was established in 2006, is the “world’s foremost gathering of stakeholders committed to reducing disaster risk and building the resilience of communities and nations”, as stated in the UNISDR website.

Moreover, the Global Platform is the primary forum to assess progress on implementation; share good practices and knowledge; forge partnerships; and promote the integration of disaster risk reduction programs across relevant sectors.

The CARD MBA experience

Highlighted in the presentation of Shaun Tarbuck at the conference is the experience of CARD MBA in providing microinsurance in the Philippines. Tarbuck is one of the panelists of the conference and is the CEO of International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) where CARD MBA is a member association.

The ICMIF executive emphasized in his presentation the 1-3-5 claims system of CARD MBA where all claims are paid within 5 days of a loss. “CARD MBA have built the trust in the communities by educating, empowering and enabling their communities to deal with losses and in turn be more resilient,” he added.

“The association is a trusted insurance provider and no doubt that they would be able to respond to the challenge by providing climate-specific products,” said Tarbuck.

Other than the assistance ICMIF provides to CARD MBA, which Tarbuck deemed as crucial, he also lauded the regulatory environment of the Philippines that enabled the association to serve the wider community.

“The support of ICMIF to the association is instrumental in realizing our vision of making sure that every Filipino will have a continued access to financial assistance especially in times of uncertainties,” said May Dawat, general manager of CARD MBA.

Dawat also thanked Tarbuck in bringing the experience of CARD MBA to the conference, one which was attended by more than 5,000 participants, including policymakers and disaster risk managers from various countries worldwide.

CARD MBA started over 18 years ago to provide life insurance to clients of CARD, Inc., CARD Bank, Inc., CARD SME Bank, Inc., and Rizal Bank, Inc., all are sister organizations of CARD MBA, and where 98% of them were women.  To date, CARD MBA remains to be largely a women-led organization composed of 3.66 million policy holders covering 12.97 million individuals.