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

We are delighted to welcome you to our 23rd Annual General Meeting of the National Insurance Claims Society (NICS) for the Term 2021/22. The last EXCO meeting was held on the 24 February 2022 ending the 2021/22 Term.

Before we usher in the new Term 2022/23, let’s flash back some events and programs that the Society had offered and organized for the Members throughout the outgoing term.

2021/22 remarked the 23rd anniversary of this Society. We are pleased to announce that presently the Society have 23 Member companies, comprising of:

• 15 General Insurers
• 2 Life Insurers
• 1 Composite Insurer
• 3 Takaful Operators
• 2 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. Teow Hon Boon from Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad.
• Networking & Special Project, headed by Mr. Kelvin How Chee Siong from Lonpac Insurance Berhad.
• Best Practices & Anti-Fraud, headed by Pn. Mumtaz Muhammad from Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Am Berhad.

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 market informative, emerging new trends, medical, practical and technical claims related topics presented by experts in their respective fields. Lawyers, Doctors, Adjusters, Consultants, Forensics experts and the Claims Managers, are some of the professionals who were the distinguished Speakers at NICS webinars.

Even with the unprecedented challenging pandemic situation, the Society had continued its efforts to educate the claims industry. The EXCOs are glad that we are able to adapt to the new norm and embraced digitalisation.  We are proud that NICS has successfully organised the following Webinars:

• How Covid-19 has impacted the Insurance Industry and the General Publi

• To provide the Insurers and member of the public an insight of some of the major changes that have taken place in the fight against Covid 19.
• Explores how the Government has attempted to deal with the pandemic and how the Courts, the Insurance industry and the relevant service providers have responded to the challenge. 
• Explores the important implication of each citizen under the Emergency Declaration and the numerous gazette’s issued under the COVID-19 Act.

• Awareness on Vaccination

• To educate awareness Insurer on method of treatment for the COVID 19 and on history of vaccinations.
• To make provide awareness invention of COVID vaccination and expectations of side effects.

• Travel Claims involving Emergency Medical Evacuation & Repatriation

• To describe the types and Enumerate Methods of Medical Transfers.
• Analyse the choice of Methods of Patient Transfer.
• To Improve the current knowledge on Medical Transfer Medicine.
• How to Control & sustain the drive to continue to operatively understand Medical Transfer.

• Motor Fraud on Bodily Injury

• To create awareness onto detection of Fraud in various components of Bodily Injury Investigation and combative approach to mitigate.
• To present an outline and to discuss the legal and practical requirements to successfully defend/dismiss a fraudulent claim.

• Sharing of Forensics Investigations

• To provide understanding on physical evidence and accelerants detection in arson investigation.
• The challenges in Court on arson investigation
• Understanding the framework of investigation
• Recognising the essential indicators during data collection
• Understanding the importance of evidence preservation

• Damages in Medical Negligence

• This webinar intends to provide an overview of the assessment of damages under the Law of Tort.

• Fraud in Own Damage Investigation & Third Party Property Damage

• To assist the participants to have a better skill and knowledge on attending to Fraud cases.

 

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. About 1,080 participants attended our Webinars for this term.

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 claims 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.

Despite the pandemic situation, we managed to achieve this by arranging a virtual sharing session with:

• Ombudsman for the Financial Services

• To share OFS’ latest performance and sectoral assessment, our observations and suggestions based on the disputes handled. 
• To share OFS’ case studies and our approach in resolving disputes.
• To provide opportunity for the members to share their feedback as well as seek clarifications with OFS.

The EXCOS are delighted that 249 participants has attended and well benefited from the informative session with OFS. 

A special appreciation to the Networking & Special Project Sub-Committee for making this dialogue 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 concerns.

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 quarterly basis jointly by the Best Practice Sub-Committee.

We have managed to organize virtual Claims Managers Meets sessions. In overall about 90 persons participated for this term on the following topics:

• Application of 3D Scanning in Investigation

• This topic introduces the 3D scanning methods, types of 3D scanners, and their applications in investigation to assist the insurance claims, which include Motor and Non-Motor cases.

• Sharing session : Fraud Experiences

• Total Loss & Theft Fraud Claims 
• TPBI / TPPD Fraud Claims 
• PA & Travel Fraud Claims 
• Motor Own Damage Fraud Claims  

A special appreciation to the Best Practices & Anti-Fraud Sub-Committee in making these webinars successful.

 

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.

We appreciate your precious time and attention.

May the Society continue to serve the Insurance Industry in upholding insurance principles, combating fraud, and in sharing best Claims practices.

Thank you.

Chairperson