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The insurance sector provides insurance protection for complex project deals in Ghana. The study assesses the service quality of insurance of complex project deals in the construction industry of developing countries, specifically Ghana. The objectives are to identify the insurance typologies in complex project deals in the construction industry, to assess the level of construction insurance quality, and to assess the challenges faced in complex project insurance.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to analyze the previously related works on insurance in the construction industry. The study then adopted quantitative research strategy where a structured questionnaire survey was used to collect information from construction industry professionals. The data analysis was organized in accordance with the specific objectives of the study with the aid of mean score analysis and independent sample t-test. The study again measured the reliability of the adopted scale using Cronbach's alpha, which indicated that all the items reliably measured what they were intended to measure, and thereby, statistical tools can be applied to give in-depth meanings.

The insurance typologies for complex projects were discovered by the study, as well as the available service qualities of insurance. The study again made it clear that the major challenges capable of affecting complex construction project are low quality of insurance companies' services and the gap in statutory and legal systems.

The major constraint in this study was the issue of taking only Ghana as a developing country to generalize the result. This is then to provide lessons for other developing countries.

The findings from this study will be useful to construction firms, insurance firms, and regulatory bodies by identifying the effectiveness of insurance as a risk mitigation measure in construction. The study will help the insurance firms to better position themselves to meet the demands of the construction industry. As the findings of this study are Ghana-specific, it is also to provide lessons for other developing countries.

This study delves deep into the complex construction project insurance service quality in developing countries, specifically Ghana.

This paper examines the role of professional associations, governmental agencies, and international accounting and auditing bodies in promulgating standards to deter and detect fraud, domestically and abroad. Specifically, it focuses on the role played by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), and other national and foreign professional associations, in promulgating auditing standards and procedures to prevent fraud in financial statements and other white‐collar crimes. It also examines several fraud cases and the impact of management and employee fraud on the various business sectors such as insurance, banking, health care, and manufacturing, as well as the role of management, the boards of directors, the audit committees, auditors, and fraud examiners and their liability in the fraud prevention and investigation.

The fact that complaints regarding general insurance claims are three times as numerous as those of life insurance claims suggests that claims behaviour of general insurers be investigated to minimize operating losses and ensure operational excellence. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Study of variance and factor analysis has been undertaken to achieve the objective of identifying factors which govern claims in general insurance business. In order to understand the dependency of claims over the sectors and segments, statistical hypothesis testing along with cross tab analysis has been conducted. The study also evaluates the relationship of these factors over the sectors and segments by running a multiple regression.

An empirical result of the study proves that there exists an association between type of sectors, i.e. public and private and segments of insurance namely fire, marine and miscellaneous. The study also suggests a claim projection model for the general insurance players.

Exclusion of specialized players due to the reason being new entrants and in order to maintain common parlance of sectors may be a limitation to this study.

The study recommends that insurance players should not treat the claims settlement strategies in isolation of segments. The claims projection model as suggested in the study may prove to be extremely helpful in projecting the claims and in turn reduce the increasing underwriting losses.

Insurance in Malta has been very largely influenced by English practice and law. The influence of the English market insurance practice and law not only shaped the Maltese market but practically that of all common law jurisdictions in former members of the British empire. Since the London insurance market continues to be a very dominant force globally until today, the connection has undoubtedly served Malta well.

The origins of UK insurance principles of utmost good faith and insurable interest under contract law, date back to times which were very different from today and the need to revise the laws has now been felt in the UK as well as in other jurisdictions which were influenced by its law and practice. In Malta, minimal legislative intervention and the Maltese courts were and continue to be mostly guided by English case law, some of which has now been superseded by the updated statute law which was recently introduced in the UK by virtue of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act (2012) and Insurance Act (2015).

We herein lay out a case study of the development of utmost good faith and insurable interest in insurance contracts within the Maltese legal context, based on empirical literature findings and semi-structured interviews together with several legal experts who are specialized in the field and experienced insurance professionals.

This paper aims to present a comparative examination of the historical and current profiles of the insurance and takaful industry in the Gulf region. Meanwhile, it will provide overview and insightful information of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for insurance and takaful providers for their marketing strategy purpose.

This paper uses insurance and takaful sectors in Gulf region as an exploring area where the data are extracted from the regulators’ annual reports and other reports issued by research houses and market players, e.g. Islamic Financial Services Industry, Swiss Re and Milliman.

The comparative analysis reveals that insurance activities penetrated the Gulf region through foreign institutions. After independence and booming oil prices, local institutions established the industry in an unregulated environment. As the industry grew and matured, the sector gradually became regulated. This supported the growth of the industry, leading to the emergence of the biggest takaful market in the world, with 72 takaful operators. Almost half of the takaful operators operate in the Saudi market. Regarding business lines, general lines dominated because of compulsory motor insurance for all cars and health insurance for expatriates. Insurance penetration and insurance density recorded a low figure in GCC compared to the global market because of a lack of product development, especially in family line, which many people think the life insurance contradicts Islamic law. Furthermore, it is low due to the poor channel of distributions with depend heavily on insurance agents that fails to reach the customers.

Interestingly, the takaful market share is considered very low, e.g. 9 per cent in Oman 9 and 9.2 per cent in UAE, where the majority of population is Muslim, indicating that takaful providers should focus in these countries to grab better market shares.

As takaful business is an emerging area in Islamic finance and many insurance players are interested in it, this paper provides an overview and marketing insights of insurance and takaful industries in the GCC region.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Insurance is a contract whereby one party (the policyholder) promises and makes a payment or series of payments in exchange for the second party’s (the insurance company’s) promise to indemnify the policyholder for losses covered under the terms of the policy. Perhaps it is easier to just think of insurance as a transaction where the policyholder trades small regular losses (the premium paid) for large and irregular gains (claims proceeds).

While it may seem somewhat disproportionate to devote an entire chapter to more detailed treatment of a single risk financing tool, insurance has a very large impact, not only in terms of its intrinsic value, but also in terms of the many ways in which insurance influences risk management thinking and practice. As will be shown, some of this influence is waning and in other cases it could be argued that insurance ‘thinking’ has hindered efforts to respond to facts on the ground and the ability to adapt the role of risk management in organisations.

To provide a useful discussion, this chapter will cover both the products that the insurance industry offers and the structure of the industry itself, along with addressing legal and regulatory matters that were touched upon in Chapter Nine. The chapter concludes with an overview of public sector insurance issues that provides a basis for understanding alternatives to insurance that have emerged in dramatic fashion in recent decades – which in turn provides a basis for considering some of the constraints that insurance imposes on risk management practice.

The Insurance Act was passed in the Czech Republic in 1991. It provided for the establishment of new insurance companies and competition between them. The Ministry of Finance was authorised to supervise insurance activities. Amendments to the Act in 1993 covered the formation and financial placement of technical provisions and made changes to insurance company accounting rules. The second important transitional step was taken in 1999 with the passage of the new Insurance Act and a motor third party liability insurance Act with the aim of harmonising Czech insurance law with the EU legal framework. This harmonisation process should be finished by the end of 2002.

The objective of writing this case study is to allow management students to engage with the complexities of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the insurance sector in an emerging economy like India. Upon completion of this case study, the students will be able to critically evaluate the business environment of the insurance sector of a developing economy like India, analyse the impact of M&As on the insurance industry of India, appraise the post-merger consequences and strategies to deal with these consequences, assess the applicability of market power and growth theories in the context of M&As and develop a strategic action plan for handling post-merger challenges.

On 3 September 2021, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) approved the “Scheme” related to the merger of the non-life insurance division of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited (“Bharti AXA”) with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (“ICICI Lombard”). Earlier, on 21 August 2020, the boards of the companies had approved entering into definitive agreements through a scheme of arrangement. The merger received approvals from different regulatory bodies as mandated (Gandhi et al., 2023). Bhargav Dasgupta, managing director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Lombard, stated, “This is a landmark step in the journey of ICICI Lombard, and we are confident that this transaction would be value accretive for our shareholders” (FE Bureau, 2020). However, the merger posed a dilemma for Dasgupta and the management regarding crop insurance owing to its impact on profitability. Crop insurance historically had high claim ratios nearing 135% for ICICI Lombard for financial year 2018. The company ceased to underwrite this product from 2019 onwards (TNN, 2019). However, ICICI Lombard had to fulfil the three-year commitment made by Bharti AXA to the state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka towards crop insurance. It was a scheme initiated by the Government of India, covering farmers against losses due to cyclonic rains, rainfall deficits and other unforeseen calamities. Dasgupta faced a challenge in managing the interests of the farmers and the company’s shareholders while balancing profitability, which had already been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study delves into post-merger complexities in the financial sector non-life insurance industry in emerging countries like India.

This case study is suitable for undergraduate and post-graduate management students and executives from the insurance industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.