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Recently, the PCRIC CEO, Mr. Aholotu Palu, participated in a panel discussion at the 10th Inclusive Green Finance Working Group (IGFWG) Meeting organised by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) in Nadi, Fiji.
Alongside representatives from the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Mr. Palu outlined the products and services offered by PCRIC and how these can contribute to building the financial resilience of MSMEs and MFIs.
While PCRIC’s core offering has been for sovereign-level policies, Mr. Palu explained how the Company has recently expanded its product range not only to cover excess rainfall and drought, but also now has initiatives to extend insurance coverage to critical sectors and state-owned enterprises.
As a number of representatives of the IGFWG are financial regulators with experience in sustainable or green finance, Mr. Palu spoke on the importance of support from regulators for unique organisations like PCRIC which exist in the development space.
PCRIC has benefitted from very close collaboration and support from the Cook Islands Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) since the Company’s establishment in 2016, with the FSC showing a constant willingness for innovation and adaptability to support PCRIC in achieving its development goals for the Pacific region.
In recent years, PCRIC has restructured to become a Segregated Portfolio Company – the first of its kind in the Cook Islands – which allows the Company to ringfence specific assets and liabilities for the purposes of providing bespoke services or receiving donor funds which need to be protected from the rest of the business.
PCRIC is also working with the FSC on establishing new regulations with regards to solvency and capital, which would bring PCRIC into alignment with Solvency II regulation, which is seen as the ‘gold standard’ for insurance companies globally. This shift would give PCRIC’s donors even more confidence about how the Company is managing its capital exposure, and ensures the financial sustainability of the organisation.
This shift is only made possible by the flexibility of FSC as the Company’s regulator, and so the PCRIC CEO’s clear message to the IGFWG was the need for regulators to be adaptable and supportive to accommodate the needs of unique organisations who are key to promoting resilience and financial inclusion.
