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Kuala Lumpur, 24 August 2010 — Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad, the property-casualty and general insurance provider, has announced the appointment of Matt Harris as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 3 August 2010. His appointment follows the promotion of former Chief Executive Officer, Rob Ryan, to Executive Vice President and Chief Administration Officer of Chartis Far East Holdings KK, in Japan.

Prior to joining Chartis Malaysia, Mr Harris was Chief Executive Officer of Chartis New Zealand, where he led a large team and was responsible for designing and implementing a co-ordinated business strategy across multiple operating divisions and support functions.

Mr Harris has more than 20 years experience in general insurance during which time he has worked in various operational disciplines including underwriting, product, actuarial, reinsurance, claims and risk/governance functions. He gained this wide-ranging experience working for major insurers in Australia, New Zealand, India and the United Kingdom. He is a senior associate member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.

Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad is a leading property-casualty and general insurance provider in the country. It has 15 offices nationwide, offering insurance services to businesses and consumers via a network of more than 3,000 professional agents, brokers and staff.

Chartis is a worldwide leader in property-casualty and general insurance. Chartis Companies employ more than 34,000 people worldwide and serve more than 40 million business and individual customers in 160 countries and jurisdictions on every continent. In 2009, Chartis companies wrote gross premiums of over US$40-billion worldwide and the company paid out an average of US$75 million worldwide in claims everyday.

Here’s a very educational booklet by MSIDC on preventive measures you can take before boarding the plane.

Fit to Fly by Malaysian Society of Infectious Diseases & Chemotheraphy

Besides notifying your Insurer or the Agent immediately, here are some procedures that will help you in ensuring a faster and more efficient claim process.

In general, most Insurers would require you to furnish the following critical documents before any claims can be processed:

1) Fully completed Travel Claim form (incomplete form may cause delay in processing)
2) Original Insurance Certificate & Proposal Form
3) Original used air ticket & boarding pass

So, it’s always to your advantage to keep all your insurance documents filed and organized.

For each type of claims, preparing the following supporting documents will help a lot in the claim process. However, each Insurer will have a different set of requirements, so it’s best that you adhere strictly to their request to avoid any delays.

Medical Expenses
a) Original Medical Bills/Invoices
b) Original Payment Receipt issued by the clinic/hospital
c) Original Medical Report/Diagnosis note duly certified by the attending Physician

Flight Delay
a) Letter from airline confirming the delay duration (in number of hours), actual departure time and reason for the delay.

Flight Misconnection
a) Letter from airline confirming the actual time of arrival at the airport of the transit point and actual departure time of the connecting flight.
b) Original receipts for hotel accommodation, restaurant meals or refreshment.

Baggage Delay
a) Property Irregularity Report
b) Letter from airline confirming the delay duration (in number of hours), the reason for the delay and their offer of compensation.
c) Original receipts for emergency purchases of essential clothing & toiletries during the delay duration.

Baggage Loss
a) Property Irregularity Report
b) Letter from airline confirming the loss and their offer of compensation
c) Original receipts for items claimed

Baggage Damage
a) Property Irregularity Report
b) Letter from airline confirming the damage and their offer of compensation
c) Photographs depicting the damage
d) Original quotation or receipt for repair
e) Original purchase receipt of the damaged luggage

Trip Cancellation & Trip Curtailment
a) Original invoice and payment receipts confirming the full amount paid
b) Tour Fare breakdown charges & travel itinerary
c) Letter from Travel agent confirming the refund amount. If nil refund, to state reason
d) If the cause of cancellation/curtailment is due to medical condition of an immediate family member, to provide Proof of relationship, e.g. birth certificate or marriage certificates. If due to death, also enclose the Death Certificate.
e) Medical Report and to provide details of all normal attending physicians.

Loss of Travel Document
a) Original receipts for additional hotel accommodation, land transportation cost & communication expenses
b) Original police report & official translated copy of the report, if report is not in English
c) Insured’s account on the exact description of the incident
d) Loss of Money
e) Original Police report obtained at the place of loss
f) Official translated police report, if report is not in English.
g) Insured’s account on the exact description of the incident

(via Business Times)

From next year, the limit of bank deposits insured by Malaysia Deposit Insurance (PIDM) will be raised to RM250,000 per depositor per member bank from RM60,000 now.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also announced yesterday a plan to introduce an explicit insurance compensation scheme (ICS) for insurance and takaful policyholders.

According to the Finance Ministry, it is the Prime Minister’s intention to implement a package of legislative initiatives aimed at enhancing financial consumer protection for Malaysians.

“The plan is for this package to be tabled in Parliament for debate and enactment before year-end,” the Finance Ministry said.

With the ICS, policyholders of insurance and takaful products will also enjoy a similar level of consumer protection provided by PIDM for depositors in the commercial and Islamic banks.

Since the temporary government deposit guarantee would lapse as scheduled at the end of this year, the enhanced protection package would continue to provide increased protection to depositors.

“With this new limit, 99 per cent of depositors will be protected in full,” the ministry said.

Chief executive officer of PIDM Jean Pierre Sabourin said at a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur said the RM250,000 limit was proposed based on a survey of member banks and took into consideration the expected growing wealth of Malaysians in the years ahead.

He said PIDM will be issuing the new deposit insurance information regulations to be effective in January 2011.

“The purpose of the regulations is to ensure depositors receive accurate, relevant and timely information on deposit insurance, limits and coverage,” he said.

On the ICS, Sabourin said the scheme is to protect policyholders from the loss of their policy claims or insured benefits in the unlikely event of a failure of an insurance or takaful company.

He said the establishment of the ICS was timely since the insurance has an important economic role.

Like in the Deposit Insurance System, PIDM will also collect annual levies or premiums from member insurance companies but it may also borrow or raise funds from the capital markets.

Malaysia’s exports have been paralysed by the “nightmare” chaos caused by the European volcanic ash cloud and would hurt the nation’s economic recovery, a hauliers’ spokesman said today.

Southeast Asia’s third largest economy, which relies heavily on exports, is tentatively emerging from the global downturn as global trade picks up.

But Walter Culas, chairman of the airfreight forwarders association of Malaysia, told AFP that with the ash cloud forcing the closure of European airspace for almost a week hundreds of tonnes of cargo are not being delivered.

“As of today about 400 tonnes of cargo are stranded at the airport. The volcanic ash has paralysed valuable cargo movement to Europe from Malaysia,” he said. “The total losses could snowball to billions of ringgit,” Culas said.
He added that a sizeable portion of the cargo holed up were electrical and electronics products, which as a sector contributes significantly to the economy in terms of export earnings, manufacturing output and employment.

“The stranded cargo will hurt the Malaysian economy which is coming out of a recession. We just came out of a steep hill and run into a ditch,” he said.

Mukhriz Mahathir, deputy minister of international trade and industry said the government would try to find a quick solution to resolve the backlog cargo.

Culas described the shutdown across Europe as “my worst logistic nightmare in my 39-year career as a haulier”. “Most of the logistics hubbing for global trade are based in Europe — London, Paris, Frankfrut and Amsterdam. The airtraffic shutdown has crippled the logistics industry,” he said.

He hit out at Malaysia Airlines Cargo (MASkargo), the air cargo subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, for a lack of leadership in dealing the crisis.

“MASkargo, the terminal operator which handles cargo to Europe has not communicated with hauliers. The situation is worsening by day with no solution in sight. The terminal operator is not providing any leadership,” he said.

Culas said some urgent goods were transported to Singapore by road Tuesday before being flown to Lisbon — which has avoided the ash cloud — and then driven to their final destination.

However, Culas said it could take up to a month to clear the backlog of cargo. — AFP