Banking & Insurance

Typically, an insurance policy stipulates that notice of a claim must be given as soon as possible or within the time limit stipulated by the policy. While this may seem simple enough with a straight-forward assets policy, liability insurance is markedly different.

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides banks with the means to make better use of the massive amount of data at their disposal. In doing so, they can identify opportunities for growth faster and gain significant competitive advantage at a time when more agile digital counterparts are emerging.

I am calling on the insurance and fiduciary services industry to stop the practice of generating inaccurate product comparisons. Unfortunately, negative and inaccurate product comparison has entrenched itself in our industry, causing damage to companies and leading to mistrust by consumers.

With thousands of cases reported, and the World Health Organisation declaring it a global health emergency, the coronavirus has been making headlines.

The R7.1million claim that was recently filed against Woolworths, after a customer stumbled and fell over a packing crate, once again brings the growing liability risks faced by South African businesses into focus. Personal injury claims are increasing in severity with each passing year. Looking at our own statistics, the average intimated values for personal injury (slip-and-trip) claims have risen from R172,600 to R270,690 between 2016 and 2018.

Banning health insurance options and scrapping the move to introduce affordable medical scheme cover demonstrates a flagrant disregard for individuals' rights to enter into voluntary private contracts to protect themselves from unforeseen out-of-pocket payments when catastrophe strikes.

Digital and mobile technology is continually evolving and advancing, creating new ways to pay; from mobile wallets to peer-to-peer to digital currency, the modern payments landscape has evolved past simply cards and cash. Consumers, eager to adopt these new ways to pay, are changing their purchasing habits to meet these emerging methods.

Speaking in KwaZulu-Natal on New Year’s Day, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that the National Health Insurance (NHI) will put private and public hospitals on par with each other. Indeed, rather than improving the quality of care on offer in the public sector, it’s more likely that, by effectively nationalising them, the NHI will reduce the quality of care at private facilities. 

Following the recently announced rules from the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) to reduce the maximum value of cheque limits to R50,000, businesses are urged to adopt electronic banking channels.

South Africa has significantly more financial crime than most other countries. With a rate of 77% compared to a global average of 49%, SA is something of a hotbed for fraud and scams. As consumers and insurance-seekers we need to understand the risks of economic crime and how to avoid becoming a victim, the risks of committing insurance fraud and how to avoid being inadvertent perpetrators of fraud ourselves, by for example, omitting information in an insurance application