Insurance 44 Regulation and Compliance

INSURANCE

Insurance is a wide-ranging career helping clients hedge against personal and business-related risks in every aspect of life.

OVERVIEW

The insurance industry is a broad field that includes several types of coverage, including life, health, auto, property, and casualty insurance. However, they all ultimately involve safeguarding an individual or organisation’s financial assets in the event of unexpected mishaps.

The insurance industry also includes people from many different backgrounds, so it’s possible to seek suitable opportunities regardless of your education or experience level!

CAREERS

There are a wide-range of career pathways in the insurance industry, but here are some of the more popular positions that graduates can expect to start out in:

Graduate underwriter: As an underwriter, you assess the risks of insuring a person or company according to the likelihood of a claim being made.

Graduate insurance broker: More commonly known as insurance agents, insurance brokers advise clients about potential risks and then sell them insurance policies that can minimise those risks. As an insurance broker, you will work with both individuals and businesses, and you will have the option to specialise in one specific area of insurance.

Business development and sales

graduate roles: By contrast to working at an external agency, you can also be working in an insurance company’s internal business development or sales division.

Claims management trainee:

As part of the insurance claims department, you will be involved in assessing the validity of submitted claims, as well as liaising with policyholders to ensure that the repayment process is completed efficiently.

Trainee loss adjuster: Loss adjusters evaluate insurance claims by investigating cases and determining liability and damage, in accordance with the policies of the insurance company. Loss adjusters typically work as independent third parties and are attached to specialist practices instead of insurance companies.

Graduate product manager:

Product managers at insurance companies are responsible for creating, testing and launching new insurance products for potential customers. Their responsibilities may include market research, sales forecasting and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Operations management:

Operations can cover managing customer service teams, maintaining existing tech platforms or deploying new ones, and ensuring smooth workflow of processes within the different divisions of the company.

CAREER PROGRESSION

In addition to the above areas, insurance companies also require a wide range of support roles to support their core business, such as technology specialists, marketing and HR personnel. Many large insurance employers offer training or graduate schemes to help new hires adapt to the new working environment. These schemes tend to rotate graduates across the different business areas of the company to help them understand the company better.

REQUIRED SKILLS

Recruiters value candidates who have good customer service and numeracy skills, the ability to react promptly, and an eye for detail.

Generally, most insurance employers state a preference for numerate, business or management-related degrees. While this is especially true for some positions with a more technical bent – such as underwriters, graduates from all degree disciplines are still welcome to try for other roles.

REGULATION AND COMPLIANCE

Regulation and compliance in financial institutions are all about ensuring adherence to both internal and external guidelines and laws.

OVERVIEW

New laws, rules, and regulations are being introduced to the financial sector all the time, even as existing laws and regulations have to be upheld.

This is where the compliance department comes in. A financial institution’s compliance department serves as an internal enforcement division for the firm, ensuring that it follows all the rules laid down by regulatory bodies.

Here’s a breakdown on some of the responsibilities a compliance professional will have to undertake:

Keep up to date with relevant laws and regulations

Monitor compliance with laws, regulations and internal policies

Investigate irregularities and non compliance issues

Review marketing materials to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements

Collaborate with other departments to ensure compliance is a shared goal organisation-wide

CAREER PATHWAYS

Most companies require future compliance hires to have at least a bachelor’s degree in in law, finance, business management, or in a related field. Compliance professionals usually take continuing education programs to stay up to date with laws and other information they need for effectively monitoring compliance. As such, most positions would require you obtain some sort of ongoing certification.

In Malaysia, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) manages licensing for capital market intermediaries including compliance professionals. Compliance professionals need to meet the following minimum entry criteria before seeking registration with the SC:

Candidates must possess a degree, with three years of relevant working experience in the capital markets or a diploma with five years of working experience in the capital market industry.

Candidates are required to pass Module 11 (Fundamentals of Compliance) and Modules 14 (Futures & Options) and 16 (Rules & Regulations of Futures and Options) of the SC licensing examinations.

After registration with the SC, applicants must also fulfill the following SC related qualifications:

Pass Module 11 of SC Licensing Examination

Attend the relevant modules of the SC Licensing Examination Preparatory Courses ( i.e. Modules 14&16)

Complete at least three Industry Transformation Initiative (ITI) courses that are relevant to the regulated activity that they are supervising

It is not uncommon for compliance professionals to start off in retail banking, where the rules are more straightforward and concise, in order to gain experience. They can then move towards corporate banking and specialise in departments such as mergers and acquisitions, project financing, and international trade.

REQUIRED SKILLS

To work in the regulation and compliance industry, you will need to have:

The ability to analyse and interpret information quickly

Attention to detail

Critical problem-solving ability - you will often have to make decisions on the information available which is not always in black and white

Project management skills

Communication skills – including the ability to stand your ground and convince others of your thought process