At the Multaqa 2014, ta’ameen Qatar spoke to Mohammed Ali Londe, Analyst, EMEA Insurance and Simon Harris, Managing Director, Financial Institutions from Moody's Investors Service to understand the value that credit rating companies bring to the insurance market. 

What is your outlook on Qatar’s insurance market? 

Simon: The Qatari insurance market demonstrates tremendous growth potential, especially in the logistics and infrastructure space with the FIFA World Cup 2022 being just around the corner. With new mega projects, which are either being announced or are underway, there are immense opportunities for insurers to play a strong role in insuring all these projects. 

How do credit rating companies understand how well capitalized an insurance or reinsurance company is? 

Simon: An insurer or reinsurer’s credit rating helps a counterparty (whether an insurance player or broker) to decide which insurer they would like to place their business with. 

Our rating methodology is based upon the rating scorecard, which incorporates the analyst's opinion and judgement on eight broad factors like market position, brand and distribution, business and geographic diversification, asset quality, capital adequacy, financial flexibility and profitability to name a few. 

Based on our observation, we can say that insurers in Qatar and in the GCC region are well-capitalized. At the same time, they also have high levels of investment risks. 

Please tell us about your objective for being a part of Multaqa 2014. Does Moody’s have a presence locally in Qatar or in the region? 

Mohammed: We started our insurance side of business from Dubai in July 2013 and since then, have established ourselves locally in the region. Prior to that, we were handling all research on credit ratings pertaining to the GCC including Qatar from our offices in London. We definitely see a lot of potential in Qatar and that is why we are here at the Multaqa to reach out to the public to show our presence and offer our services.

Do you face challenges while seeking financial data in any particular segment? Have insurance companies in Qatar been cooperative in sharing their financials with credit rating companies? 

Mohammed: The types of challenges vary across different markets. However, in Qatar, we have seen that the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has been phenomenally good in compiling and collating information on the insurance sector across the GCC. The MENA Insurance Barometer is surely a very useful guide for all in the insurance fraternity. 

Companies which are listed are mandated to share their financial information. It is always difficult to retrieve financial data from companies which are not listed. It is a difficult step but is not specific to Qatar and is seen to happen across the entire GCC. Saudi Arabia is the only market, where you have to have all the companies listed and all companies are bound to give out their financial information.