Microfinance Focus, May 13, 2011: Speaking at the recent Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) 44th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Vietnam, a panel of experts pitched for Microinsurance as a key tool to help protect the world’s poor against unexpected calamities.

During the seminar titled “Protecting the Bottom Billion the Private Sector Way”, experts discussed the huge opportunity that the underserved customers present to the private sector insurers who have been reluctant in providing Microinsurance due to regulatory constraints and inherent difficulties in operation.

However experts were of the opinion that those companies which are already in the business of Microinsurance are reporting strong growth and demand in the sector. Low-income clients also look for policies that are offered at a price they can afford and in a way they can understand and use, the panel said.

“There is a huge untapped market for Microinsurance for lower-income households. The commercial sector will drive the dramatic expansion of the industry, but we will have to address it in a systemic way across the value chain,” said Michael McCord, President of the Microinsurance Centre.

ADB has been instrumental in promoting Microinsurance in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and elsewhere and spent $4.4 million in its promotion. It helped develop the nascent Microinsurance markets in the People’s Republic of China and Mongolia with a $ 750, 000 allocations last year

President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation delivered an introduction to the seminar via video.