Insurance Act, 2017 (Act No. 18 of 2017)Chapter 4 : Licensing, Suspension and Withdrawal of Licence22. Requirements for licence |
| (1) | In order to qualify for licensing as an insurer— |
| (a) | a person— |
| (i) | in the case of a person that intends to conduct microinsurance business only, must be a profit company or a non-profit company registered under the Companies Act, or a co-operative registered under the Co-operatives Act; |
| (ii) | in the case of a person that intends to conduct reinsurance business only, must be a public company or state-owned company registered under the Companies Act, a co-operative registered under the Co-operatives Act or a branch of a foreign reinsurer; and |
| (iii) | in any other case, subject to section 70, must be a public company or state-owned company registered under the Companies Act, or a co-operative registered under the Co-operatives Act; |
| (b) | a person’s primary business activity must be the conducting of insurance business and operations arising directly therefrom; |
| (c) | a person must demonstrate that— |
| (i) | its key persons and significant owners meet the prescribed fit and proper requirements; |
| (ii) | it has a sound business plan; |
| (iii) | it has a plan to meet its stated commitments in terms of transformation of the insurance sector, including meeting the targets envisaged by the Financial Sector Code; |
| (iv) | it has adequate operational management capabilities to conduct the classes and sub-classes of insurance business set out in Schedule 2 that it wishes to conduct; |
| (v) | if it is a branch of a foreign reinsurer and the requirements imposed by the foreign jurisdiction in which the institution is authorised and supervised have not been determined as equivalent to this Act under section 65, the laws of the country under which the institution is authorised and supervised establish a regulatory framework equivalent to that established by this Act; |
| (vi) | if it is part of an insurance group, that its controlling company will be able to meet the requirements for insurance groups as set out in this Act; and |
| (vii) | it will be able to comply with the governance framework requirements, financial soundness requirements and reporting and public disclosure requirements of this Act; |
| (d) | that person’s licensing must not be contrary to the interests of prospective policyholders or the public interest; and |
| (e) | in the case of a state-owned company, an Act of Parliament authorises that company to conduct insurance business and the Minister has approved that the company may apply for a licence under this Act. |
| (2) | In order to qualify for licensing as a controlling company, a holding company of, or another juristic person that controls, an insurance group must demonstrate that— |
| (a) | its key persons and significant owners meet the prescribed fit and proper requirements; |
| (b) | it has a sound business plan; and |
| (c) | it will be able to comply with the governance framework, financial soundness, reporting and public disclosure requirements of this Act. |
| (3) | The Prudential Authority, prior to licensing, may require a person to change its proposed name (or a translation, shortened form or derivative thereof), if the proposed name is unacceptable because it— |
| (a) | is identical to that of another insurer or controlling company; |
| (b) | so closely resembles that of another insurer or controlling company that the one is likely to be mistaken for the other; |
| (c) | is identical to or so closely resembles that under which another insurer or controlling company was previously licensed, and reasonable grounds exist for objection to its use; or |
| (d) | is misleading or undesirable. |