DOF asks WB help in crafting public asset insurance
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III asked the World Bank to assist the Philippines in crafting an insurance structure for its public assets in cooperation with private reinsurers to enable the government to respond faster and better to natural disasters.
Dominguez pitched this proposal during his first meeting with Fabio Kanczuk, the recently elected Executive Director of the World Bank Group Constituency of Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Philippines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.
Their meeting was held on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Bank Board of Governors held last month in Bali Nusa Dua, Indonesia.
“We want to develop this strategy in which we can have a way to analyze our risks to decide how much we will take and how much we will pass on to the insurance market, not only for our national government assets but also for assets at the local government level,” Dominguez said.
Kanczuk, the former Secretary of Economic Policy of Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, assumed his new post at the World Bank last November 1.
His predecessor, Otaviano Canuto, also met with Dominguez here to bid farewell and assure the Philippines of his continued support for its development programs as he returns to the private sector.
Dominguez informed Kanczuk that the Philippine government is planning to also work with Lloyd’s of London and the Citi Group to explore the possibility of tapping reinsurance facilities and accessing the capital markets to obtain financial cover for state assets.