Kopi talk - Serving the 'unbanked'

Hi Toting Bunye thanks for the article, similarly in Singapore the government adopted a top down strategy at the bottom they have a strategy. At the top, it’s good that people are doing well no side effect to the country, although the incomes may look large, but Singapore cannot hold these incomes down. Nor can levy higher income taxes, to impose higher tax on the well to do, at  the end it will tax them away because if you try to do that, particularly in a small and open country like Singapore, the talent will leave, the economy will lose vitality, and many others will suffer. And right now, Singapore are prospering because the income taxes down, and open door to welcomed talent, attracted businesses the economy has boomed like almost 110,000 jobs created first half of this year.
For those who have succeeded they are encourage to show that they care for their fellow citizens, for example, through philanthropy.In fact its nothing new it has happening all over in the US. A lot of the new wealth, people who are rich, instead of just spending it or living extravagant lifestyles, they’re setting up foundations,doing good work. And here, too, in Singapore those who had succeed are donating generously to good causes. like the universities, they have received contributions, donations for endowments to many projects and the universities have a scheme to have endowed professorships – professorships named after people and collected contributions widely. Groups have mobilized in order to pass the hat around and between the universities and it s a snowballing effect to have nearly 80 endowed professorships. In Philippine during these past year we began to see more and more charitable association like The Civil Relations Service, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Philippine-Chinese Charitable Association Incorporated (PCCAI) recently, where the PCCAI agrees to provide free medical services to personnel of CRSAFP through its owned Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center for extending its generosity and care for the welfare of the soldiers. I guess such gesture hopefully would be also to extend it to those needs of the poor.

Posted by Toting Bunye Please direct your comment at totingbunye2000@gmail.com.

Filipinos who believe in the importance of life insurance were surely ecstatic at the recent passage of Republic Act 10001, which reduced taxes on insurance premiums and made it more affordable for them to invest in their future.

Life insurance, as most of us know, financially prepares policy holders and their families for eventualities such as illness and death.

However, this law would probably fail to resonate among the poor and marginalized, who could not afford to pay thousands of pesos in annual insurance premiums.

In this light, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Insurance Commission (IC) have found what could be an answer to this predicament by making insurance readily available to the poor.

The BSP's Monetary Board recently approved the marketing, sale and servicing of micro-insurance products by rural, cooperative and thrift banks through BSP Circular No. 683. This is in line with BSP's inclusive finance policy to provide services to the previously ''unbanked'' sector.

According to Ms. Pia Bernadette R. Tayag, who heads the Inclusive Finance Advocacy unit of the BSP, thrift, cooperative and rural banks were previously prohibited from selling insurance to their clients. Only the big universal banks with equity stakes in insurance companies were allowed to do so.

This approval presents a huge potential of allowing the network of nearly 3,500 rural, cooperative and thrift banking offices to serve as distribution points for authorized micro-insurance products offered by licensed insurance providers.

Since many of these banks have existing relationships with micro finance clients, they have the capacity to deliver a full range of financial services to them.

Thus the banks could now offer micro-insurance products to their microfinance clients, collect insurance premiums and dispense benefits in the event that they are needed.

Micro-insurance, as defined by the IC, is an activity providing specific insurance, insurance-like and other similar products and services that meet the needs of the low-income sector for risk protection and relief against distress, misfortune and other contingent events.

For example, the microinsurance product's premiums, contributions, fees and charges should not exceed five percent of the policy holder's current daily minimum wage. If the worker's daily minimum wage is P369, he should only contribute a maximum of P18.45 in insurance premiums.

Another limitation is the ceiling on the guaranteed benefits of the micro-insurance product, which should not exceed 500 times the current daily minimum wage. Despite the ceiling, the insurance proceeds are deemed sufficient to meet the normal burial, hospitalization and other insurance-related expenses of the insured.

With micro-insurance complementing micro-finance, the needs of the poor are now better served.

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: Micro-Estimation.(Book review): 

An article from: Journal of Risk and InsuranceHealth Micro-insurance Schemes: 

Feasibility Study GuideHealth Micro-insurance Schemes, Monitoring and Evaluation Guide: Volume 2, Practical Indications

MICRO FINANCE IN UGANDA.: An article from: Market Africa Mid-East