Santo Domingo, DR.- The Superintendent of Insurance, Josefa Castillo Rodríguez, highlighted the progress that the Dominican Republic has achieved in the area of insurance, emphasizing the establishment of Risk-Based Supervision and Consolidated Supervision with the financial sector, for which it has signed joint collaboration agreements with the Superintendencies of Banks, Securities and Pensions.
The official highlighted the strengthening of the regulatory framework, formally presented to the coordinator of the reform of the Insurance Law appointed by presidential decree. The bill, among other aspects, has incorporated the International Standards and Basic Principles of Insurance issued by the IAIS, the gradual adoption of Solvency II, the strengthening of the financial solvency of insurers, the inclusion of branches such as pension insurance and inclusive insurance, the sanctioning regime, user protection and the professionalization of the actors that make up the sector.
Josefa Castillo made these statements during the opening remarks at the meeting of the Central American Council of Superintendents of Banks, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions (CCSBSO), hosted by the Dominican Republic, with the physical participation of Alex Roberto Lara Enamorado, Superintendent of Insurance and Banks of Honduras, Karina Velásquez, Executive Secretary of the CCSBSO of Panama, Erick Benjamín Fiallos Bustamante, Superintendent of Supervision of the Banking and Insurance Commission of Honduras, and Ralph Reichlin, Research Assistant of the CCSBSO of Panama.
Also present were Walter Ernesto Flores Lovo, Superintendent of Insurance of the Financial System of El Salvador, María Sonia Pérez Barahona, Head of the Supervision Department of the Superintendency of the Financial System of El Salvador, Juan Carlos Alfaro Lozano, Director of the Toronto Centre Program of Colombia, Luis Alfonso Narváez, Head of Supervision of the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions of Nicaragua, Oscar del Cid, Supervisor of the Superintendency of Banks of Guatemala, Guillermo Jiménez Martínez, Superintendent of the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions of Nicaragua, and Néstor Quiñonez, Supervisor of the National Commission of Banks and Insurance of Honduras.
Other delegates from Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize participated virtually.
The Superintendent said that: “the officials who manage institutions must adhere to the transparency that the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, has assumed as a priesthood, who in this regard has signed multilateral agreements at the summits of Heads of State or Governments of the member countries of the United Nations Organization (UN) and in other multilateral organizations.”
He said that with these exchanges we strengthen cooperation to establish control and supervision mechanisms, as well as best practices under a risk-based supervision approach, which guarantee the protection of the financial system and users, as well as mitigate the risk of unsuitable investments that can be used to permeate and contaminate the financial system and therefore the economy of Central American countries.
The official stated that they have taken actions that have allowed for a substantial improvement in the management indices of the Dominican insurance sector, “a more robust and strengthened sector in full development, to the point that we have had a growth in premiums in these last three years of over 18 percent,” she said.
During the plenary sessions, participants established the 2025-2029 planning, emphasizing strengthening and standardizing consolidated cross-border supervision, determining training and technical assistance needs, and activities of the cooperation agreement on environmental and social management.
They also addressed parametric, inclusive and microinsurance insurance, while Tomas Soley, Superintendent of Insurance of Costa Rica, gave a virtual presentation on the Roadmap for the greening of the insurance sector. Likewise, Jaime Rodríguez, Financial Superintendent of Colombia, spoke about the Sustainable Finance Strategy and the incorporation of environmental criteria, and Juan Carlos Alfaro from the Toronto Centre of Colombia, spoke about the Impact of climate risks in the insurance sector, as well as a discussion on the incorporation of climate risks and ESG criteria into risk-based supervision frameworks for the insurance industry.
