PoPI is expected to affect the entire insurance industry, especially brokers, as the main repositories of most customer information. While certain sections of the Act have been implemented, most of (especially the sections that create compliance requirements) will only start on a later date to be announced by the president.
“We need to find creative ways to enable all role-players, especially intermediaries to prepare,” says Mohammed Patel, Old Mutual Insure head of regulatory risk & compliance.
“As an industry, I don’t believe that we are all ready for the changes that PoPI will bring. One has to remember that our industry has direct and intermediated offerings. When following an intermediated model, there is a strong reliance on intermediaries as third parties to process data and herein lies the possible weakness, he says.
Insurers rely on these intermediaries to ensure the integrity and protection of mutual customer information, and on procurement partners to deliver services on their behalf. This necessitates the exchange of information. “We have to ready ourselves as an industry for the benefit of our customers throughout the value chain of the insurance lifecycle,” Patel adds
The length of time it has taken government to approve and implement the legislation in full has directly affected the industry’s state of readiness. “I don’t think the industry has taken PoPI seriously enough. This is most likely due to the amount of time it has taken to approve the regulations and appoint the information protection regulator.
Patel understands that, for most intermediaries, it is easy to feel overwhelmed regarding the full implementation of PoPI. He urges intermediaries to remember that the general principles around compliance are not different from principles that would ordinarily guide good business behaviour
“If you’re a business guided by ethical decision making in providing your customers with services that they need, then PoPI will be easy. I suggest that you use the services of someone who will be able to understand your business processes in terms of what needs to be demonstrated for PoPI compliance, and help you understand what needs to be done to comply if there are any gaps.”
He says Old Mutual Insure has set up a Third Party Management Framework, which assists intermediaries to understand the requirements and to provide tools that will help meet these requirements.
