GCC Insurance Daily
The day's insurance news across the GCC: regulation, governance, AI in insurance, and people moves. Curated, attributed, and linked to the source.
Top story
S&P Global Ratings sees premium growth easing across the Gulf this year, with Saudi Arabia slowing to 8 to 12 per cent and the UAE to around 10 per cent after nearly 20 per cent in 2025. The agency puts the moderation down to maturing mandatory lines rather than any loss of underlying demand, and still expects health and motor to carry the market.
S&P flags that seven listed Saudi insurers now carry accumulated losses above 20 per cent of share capital, leaving them exposed as the risk-based capital regime moves to a soft launch this year ahead of full effect on 1 January 2027. The weakest players look most likely to face capital raises or merger talks, adding to the consolidation already under way in the Kingdom.
Oman's Financial Services Authority has amended the unified motor policy so an accident victim now claims directly from their own insurer, which then recovers from the at-fault carrier. Standard cover carries no deductible, and the rules add binding settlement timelines with compensation where repairs run late, shifting the friction from policyholders onto insurers' claims operations.
Islamic Arab Insurance Company (SALAMA) has elected Humaid Mohammad Obaid Alqutami as chairman, with Fareed Lutfi as vice chairman, and reconstituted its audit, risk, nomination and investment committees. The move follows last year's capital restructuring and reads as a settling of governance after a turbulent period for the Dubai-listed takaful insurer.
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company has signed three agreements with Total CX, part of Beyon Group, covering manpower outsourcing, tele-sales and AI solutions to support its customer-experience and digital plans. A modest step, but a telling one: the insurer is outsourcing operational plumbing and leaning on a local partner for automation rather than building it in-house.
Saudi insurer Tawuniya has led an oversubscribed $2.8m round in Maalexi, a UAE agricultural-trade platform, alongside Global Ventures. A small cheque, but it shows a major carrier putting capital into the data, IoT and blockchain rails around trade and risk, rather than only underwriting them.
Each item is a short editorial summary with a link to the original source. Items marked Rumour · unverified are unconfirmed and should be treated with caution. Compiled automatically; corrections welcome.