Distinguished EXCO Members, CEOs of Insurance Companies, Fellow Members, Members of the Secretariat, Ladies & Gentlemen.

We are delighted to welcome you to our 21st Annual General Meeting of the National Insurance Claims Society (NICS) for the Term 2019/20. The last EXCO meeting was held on the 05 February 2020 ending the 2019/20 Term.

It has been an eventful 2019/20 Term. Before we usher in the new Term 2020/21, let’s flash back some events and programs that the Society had offered and organized for the Members throughout the outgoing term.

2019/20 remarked the 21st anniversary of this Society. We are pleased to announce that presently the Society have 26 member companies, comprising of :

• 14 General Insurers
• 4 Life Insurers
• 2 Composite Insurers
• 3 Takaful Operators
• 3 Reinsurance Companies

The Society will continue its efforts to promote and welcome more Members from the industry. It will also provide networking opportunities for wider knowledge-sharing and could also accelerate information exchange within the insurance fraternity.

EXCO Members are the driving force of the Society, involving the volunteers from Claims professionals who are nominated by the Member companies.

There are focused main Sub-Committees formed to carry out the Society’s activities, namely:

• Education & Training, headed by Mr Patrick Wong from AXA Affin General Insurance.
• Networking & Special Project, headed by Pn Azura Manaf Toop from Syarikat Takaful Am Malaysia.
• Best Practices & Anti-Fraud, headed by Pn Norfidah Abdullah from Malaysian Reinsurance.

Special applause to all the Members of the named Sub-Committees for their time, commitment and dedication throughout the expiring term.

Educational seminars were organized on a wide range of legal, medical, practical and technical claims related topics presented by experts in their respective fields. Lawyers, Doctors, Adjusters, Consultants and Forensic experts are some of the professionals who were the distinguished Speakers at NICS seminars.

These diverse arrays of educational programs included topics such as :

• Motor Insurance Bureau & The Insurer Concerned
• Nursing Care
• How to establish and manage "Anti-Fraud Programme” as a powerful tool to Combat Fraud
• Medical Malpractice and Liability Claims
• FSA & IFSA 2013: Issues Concerning Nomination and Interest Payments
• Coverage & Claims for Personal Accident and Life Insurance
• Theft Investigation – Methodology, Liaison with Police/Customs, Definition of Theft, Cheat and CBT in Penal Code
• TPBI Injury Fraud
• Contractor All Risk and Machinery Breakdown
• Civil Law Amendment Act and Courts Trends / Process

We believe that well educated claims professionals are best able to represent their industry’s interests by providing excellent claims services professionally to the organization and customers.

To this effect, we commend the Education & Training Sub-Committee for being very active, effective and delivered a meaningful range of related topics for the benefit of its members.

Besides offering the claim industry in general and member companies in particular specialized educational services, one of NICS objectives is also to enhance opportunities and provide a valuable platform for networking for the Insurance Industry.

The Society intended to develop working relationships and business rapport with individuals, companies, authorities or any party of relevance. Over the past and current expiring terms, NICS had brought many individuals together at informative and networking events.

We achieve this by arranging networking cum educational visit to :

• Pickles Asia Sdn. Bhd. – Objective achieved :
• This visitation enabled our Members to gain understanding with the operations of their Australia’s largest privately own Auction company and with the support of the Insurance industry. Further, to have better overview in all aspects of handling wrecked and scrapped vehicles which to maximize the returns (recovery value) of every vehicle on sale.
• Puspakom – Objective achieved :
• This visitation allowed our participants to have better understanding with regards to Puspakom’s inspection, services and inspection of accident Vehicle’s chassis (IAVC) as the Insurance fraternity is closely linked to investigation related to Theft, OD, Fire and other losses. It was also to have a good overview of services available by the experts and a good platform to build rapport with the Authority.
• Motor Research Centre (MRC) – Objective achieved :
• MRC is formed to build database to provide industry standards and reduce subjectivity. The database acts as a point of reference and records to improve claims processing and increase transparency. This visitation indeed enabled our Members to have better overview on the current process involved especially in respect of claims.

A special appreciation to the Networking Sub-Committee for making these visitations successful.

We were able to pool claims professionals via the Claims Managers Meet in gaining and sharing their expertise, experiences and technical know-how for the betterment of the industry in various areas of concerned.

This Claims Managers Meet was also initiated to target on rapport building among Claims Managers of member companies in order to promote an atmosphere of camaraderie and fellowship. This was fully sponsored by NICS as a token of appreciation to all member companies who had been supporting NICS activities throughout the year.

Towards this aim, the Claims Managers Meet was conducted on half yearly basis jointly by the Best Practice and Anti-Fraud Sub-Committee, followed by a networking Hi-Tea session.

Therefore, we have managed to organize the Claims Managers Meets sessions on the following topics :

• "General Subrogation with emphasize on Marine Recovery” by Mr Krishnan Nair, WE Cox Group (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
• Digitalization and market updates by En Saiful Adli Aziz, Deloitte Global (M) Sdn. Bhd.
• Trends in Motor Claims by Ms Hima Bindum, Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd.
• Vehicle Theft Overview in Asia by Tn Haji Yusof, Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia Bhd (VTREC).

I wish to extend my special appreciation on behalf of the Society to Great Eastern General Insurance for allowing to use their training rooms/auditoriums on complimentary basis for this Term.

The EXCO is delighted that about 540 participants attended and well benefited all the informative initiative sessions throughout this term.

On behalf of NICS, I take this opportunity to record great appreciation to our esteemed Member companies for their most valuable support and contributions made during the year.

Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the contributions and services volunteered by all the EXCO members who have played their roles in delivering the activities for this term.

Our gratitude also always goes to Ms Nancy and Ms Neethya from the Secretariat under the guidance of Dato’ N K Jasani who has relentlessly pursued the Society’s objectives together with us.

Thank you for your precious time and kind attention.

Chairperson