Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In his speech, Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that the pandemic which immediately followed the economic protectionism and trade wars affected Turkey as well as the whole world, “Production processes were disrupted, supply chains deteriorated, the services sector stopped. While the pandemic reminded us again of the importance of the agriculture, food, logistics and health sectors, it also changed the way we do business. The digital transformation, which may have lasted for decades, took place in as little as 3-4 months. Here we are holding our meetings from afar, as we do today, with the effect of digital transformation. Probably after the pandemic, we will continue to experience these effects."

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the insurance sector gave a good test in public and private sector cooperation during this period, and said that it is a great convenience for citizens to evaluate Covid-19 within the scope of private health insurance.

Hisarciklıoğlu stressed that the agencies and appraisers continued to work both remotely and in the field, except for the mandatory closure, and that there were no serious disruptions in the provision of policies and compensation for damages.

"For me, insurance means trust, savings, healthy growth as my partner who shares my risk," Hisarciklıoğlu said and went on, “In this sense, as the Turkish business community, providing the guarantees needed especially by our industry and solving the structural problems of our sector are among our primary expectations. Because our industrial facilities such as agriculture-based industry, textiles, furniture and chemistry are deemed risky, they cannot be insured. It is very important to solve the problem of not being able to find collateral in such sectors from time to time.”

- “Without insurance, there is no production”

Hisarciklıoğlu emphasized that without insurance, there will be no production, “If the investor cannot transfer his risks to insurance, he will not invest. This applies to both domestic and foreign investors. You will not find foreign investors in a facility without insurance protection. In fact, if you do not have insurance protection, you cannot export the product you produce. Therefore, as the real sector, we see our insurers as our business partners who share our risk, who are with us on our bad days.

Again, we know that our country is an earthquake zone. The year 2021 has been declared a disaster year by our Ministry of Interior. As TOBB, we are working in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and AFAD to prepare our business world for disasters. We guide our chambers and exchanges and companies in disaster management. Insurance is a must for disaster management. At this point, we continue our efforts to spread insurance awareness to the base and to reach all of our companies.”

Noting that the importance of insurance will increase further during the rapid growth process in the post-pandemic economy, TOBB President said, “The selfless approach of our sector, together with its companies, agents, appraisers and brokers, during this troubled period is also admirable. Our country's insurance sector is in a position to cover all kinds of risks at the point it has reached. As the Turkish Private Sector, we have full confidence in the sector. We will continue to stand by and support our insurers, who are our friends on bad days. Together with our chambers, exchanges and SAİK, we will continue to make insurance more visible and explain its importance. I expect 2021 to be a recovery and growth for all our sectors.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that agents and appraisers are making a great effort to improve insurance in Turkey, increase insurance awareness and deliver insurance to citizens.

Stating that agencies and appraisers are among the sectors that adapt most quickly to the pandemic, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “They have established the necessary infrastructure for remote work. Thus, services were not disrupted and the wheels of insurance service continued to turn without interruption.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu explained that as TOBB, they continued their activities for agents and appraisers during the pandemic period without slowing down, and organized trainings and seminars online, especially TARSIM and credit insurance.

- “The future is not to sell insurance, but to be consulted”

The TOBB President continued: “In the second half of the year, we will start our trainings on fire insurance and disaster management. Together with six of our Ministers, we conveyed the problems of our agents and appraisers at the Sectoral Economics Council we organized last November. We continue to pursue unresolved issues. In particular, from the day the ‘Distance Sales Regulation’ containing regulations against our agents was first published, we submitted our objections to both the Minister of Treasury and Finance and our SDDK President Türker. We explained that a new distribution channel to be created outside the agency and the appraiser would harm the sector. Thanks to them, they worked closely with our Executive Committee and were positive about our objections. Hopefully we'll be there will be a reconsideration soon.

As the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, we provide all kinds of support for the digitization of our agents and appraisers, adaptation to new conditions and professional development. And we'll keep providing it. In Western countries, we see that every company has a financial adviser and a lawyer, as well as an insurance consultant. Our primary goal is to increase the capacities of our agents and appraisers in our country and to ensure their professional development. In this context, we should direct and encourage our agents to more complex product groups. The future is not to ‘sell insurance,’ but to be ‘consulted,’ as in Western countries.

While we are with Mr. Atilla and Mr. Türker, we will have requests for support in some matters for our agents and appraisers. Our agents are the most important stakeholders of our insurance companies. Let's give good news to our agents and appraisers during insurance week. Let's increase the traffic insurance base commission rates. We will also make arrangements for compensation without an appraiser's report. For the healthy functioning of the system, it is very important that agents and appraisers can also survive financially.

While I end my remarks, I celebrate the whole business world and all employees working in the sector, especially the insurance agents and insurance appraisers organized by TOBB, out best wishes for Insurance Week and wish them healthy days.”