This is a list of service providers directly or indirectly involved in the provision of insurance services to low-income people. These service providers are often organisations like, for example, MFIs providing insurance and insurance companies, but also reinsurance companies and organisations providing technical assistance to the sector.
Microinsurance Companies
These are insurance organisations that have been specifically set-up to provide insurance services to the low-income market. These can be NGOs, companies or other types of organisations which mostly follow the full service model.
MFIs Providing Microinsurance
These organisations offer insurance to its clients along with other financial products. The most common insurance products are credit-life or life insurance. The decision to use one or the other model can evolve over time, but the partner-agent model would be the most favourable option if no insurance and actuary in-house expertise exists. Some organisations have especially been set up to offer microinsurance.
Insurance Companies
National and international Insurance Companies have started offering insurance products to low-income households either because they have realised the potential of this market or for corporate social responsibility motives or for both reasons. Some of these companies provide microinsurance services directly, while others partner with organizations such as MFIs that are closer to the target population (partner-agent model).
Reinsurance Companies
Reinsurance Companies provide insurance to insurance companies, thus spreading the inherent risks of the primary insurer. This is an important risk management tool for insurers, especially in developing countries. Most reinsurance companies that are active in developing countries also provide technical assistance.
Technical Assistance
Technical assistance can be provided by development agencies, foundations and insurance and reinsurance companies. The transfer of technical know-how is crucial given the complexity of insurance and the challenges of offering well-designed services to low-income households.
Microinsurance Companies
All Lanka Mutual Assurance Organization (ALMAO), Sri Lanka
ALMAO is a registered formal life insurance company offering long term life insurance, accident insurance and loan protection to low-income people.
Delta Life Insurance Company, Bangladesh
Delta is a for-profit private insurance company. It operates a separate window for providing life insurance to more than 860,000 low-income individuals.
Entrepreneurs de la Cité, France
Entrepreneurs de la Cité are providing microinsurance to micro-entrepreneurs in France in partnership with different insurance companies.
MicroCare, Uganda
MicroCare is a Ugandan licensed insurance company which offers a comprehensive health care microinsurance, third-party administration, and health clinic staffing. It currently covers more than 10,000 people.
People Mutuals, India
People Mutuals is an entity implementing the mutual insurance programme from DHAN Foundation. More than 35,000 people are covered with life insurance, livestock insurance and weather insurance.
ServiPeru, Peru
This is an insurance brokerage partnering with a private insurance company to provide integrated health and funeral insurance to more than 94,000 people.
Tata-AIG Life Insurance Company, India
TATA-AIG is a joint venture between the Tata Group and AIG and provides term life insurance and endowment insurance to nearly 21,000 rural, low-income and landless people.
VIMO SEWA, India
This is the insurance arm of SEWA union working mainly with self-employed women. It offers voluntary health insurance, life insurance and property insurance to more than 120,000 clients.
Yasiru Mutual Provident Fund, Sri Lanka
Yasiru is a microinsurance scheme that partners with NGOs providing microinsurance covering accident, death, disability and hospitalisation of the more than 15,000 clients.
Yeshasvini Trust, India
This scheme collaborates with the government and cooperatives and benefits are only available though a network of healthcare providers which covers about 1.45 million people.
Association des mutuelles de santé de Ngazidja, Ngazidja Island (Comores)
This network, promoted by CIDR, includes micro-health organisations created by enterprises‘ employees and by villages.
Association for Social Advancement (ASA), Bangladesh
ASA is an MFI that serves close to 1.5 million clients. Over 55,000 of them are covered with a term-life insurance product with a partner-agent model or the self-insurance dynamic.
Banco Oportunidade de Moçambique (BOM), Mozambique
BOM is an MFI that is a part of the Opportunity International network. It provides credit life insurance to almost 5,000 clients. Funeral insurance will be offered soon.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Indonesia
BRI has a programme to transform 3600 rural branches into microinsurance intermediaries. It provides life insurance to 2,600,000 clients.
Bhartiya Samrudhi Finance Limited (BASIX), India
BASIX is a group of financial services and technical assistance companies that provides insurance (life, livestock, health, rainfall and assets) to the rural poor. BASIX has more that 300,000 clients.
Bima ya Afya ya Atiman (Bima Ya), Tanzania
Bima is operated by the Msimbazi Parish of the Catholic Church in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It began offering a basic health insurance
programme in 1995.
BRAC, Bangladesh
BRAC provides life insurance to more than 12,000 families through an insurance scheme linked to an NGO healthcare provider with a network of clinics and associated MFIs.
Christian Enterprise Trust of Zambia (CETZAM), Zambia
CETZAM is an MFI that partners with Opportunity International and offers death and funeral insurance through a product known as Ntula.
Compartamos, Mexico
Compartamos is a Bank providing life insurance to all its 70,000 clients.
Constanta Foundation, Georgia
This MFI partners with an insurance company, Aldagi Insurance, to provide health insurance that covers the costs for in-patient transport and emergency care, surgery and therapy.
Grameen Bank, Bangladesh
The Grameen Bank offers life insurance or emergency fund, livestock insurance, equipment leasing insurance, vehicle leasing insurance and health insurance.
Grameen Kaylan, Bangladesh
As of 2004 this Grameen company is providing health insurance through a health care provider to about 58,000 families.
Karuna Trust, India
Karuna Trust is an NGO that partners with the National Insurance Company (NIC) providing a health insurance product to more than 113,000 low-income persons.
Kashf, Pakistan
This MFI is a member of WWB. It provides life and accident insurance linked to credit to urban low-income women. The policy includes a contribution to funeral expenses.
Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM), Malawi
OIBM is a network member of Opportunity International and offers both credit life as well as index linked crop insurance to more than 9,000 credit clients.
PAMECAS, Senegal, Senegal
PAMECAS is a credit union network offering an in-house health insurance scheme and credit-life.
People's Rural Education Movement (PREM), India
PREM is a voluntary organisation and, through its community based project “People’s Rural Health Promotion Scheme”, offers a mutual health insurance to about 70,000 rural people.
Pulse Holdings Ltd., Zambia
This MFI partners with the private-sector company Madison Insurance and offers life insurance to more than 2,200 people.
Réseau Alliance Santé, Benin
This network of 30 mutuals is promoted by CIDR and offers basic micro-health insurance packages to more than 25,000 clients mainly living in rural areas.
Save for Health (SHU), Uganda
This is an umbrella group for community-based health insurance schemes offering insurance-credit products to more than 4,000 clients.
Self-Help Promotion for Health and Rural Development (SHEPHERD), India
SHEPHERD is an NGO offering a wide-range of insurance products (life, health, assets, livestock, and retirement) to more than 10,000 rural women, in partnership with state insurers (LIC and UUIC).
Spandana, India
This MFI manages in-house insurance and provides credit-life insurance, spousal death insurance and limited asset loss insurance to over 390,000 people.
Tao Yeu May’s Mutual Assistance Fund (TYM), Vietnam
TYM’s is an MFI providing a community-based in-house credit life insurance scheme with hospitalisation benefits to more than 21,500 women.
Taytay Sa Kauswagan (TSKI), Philippines
This MFI is an Opportunity International affiliated. It provides credit life and life insurance to more than 330,000 persons in partnership with the private insurance company Cocolife.
Tulay Sa Pag-unlad Inc. (TSPI), Philippines
TPSI is a non-profit organisation that offers health insurance to its over 140,000 women clients and their dependants, through a partnership with the government's health insurance programme.
Uganda Agency for Development (UGAFODE), Uganda
UGAFODE is a partner of Opportunity International and provides a microinsurance package product to more than 69,000 people, also targeting people with HIV/AIDS.
UpLift India Association, India
UpLift is an association of organisations providing health and life mutual insurance services in Maharashtra to about 30,000 individuals.
Allianz Indonesia, Indonesia
In 2005 Allianz Indonesia started a one-year pilot credit-life insurance project aiming at covering more than 50,000 people.
American International Group (AIG), United States
AIG is an international insurance company partnering with 26 MFIs around the world to provide accidental death and disability (AD&D) insurance and credit-life.
AXA Financial Protection, France
In Ethiopia, AXA has provided its financial expertise to design an insurance against drought.
Bajaj Allianz, India
Allianz is providing more than 42,000 microinsurance credit-life policies in partnership with Bajaj Allianz (local insurer) and the NGO ASA.
Columna, Guatemala
Columna is an insurance company providing three microinsurance products: credit-life, life savings and a Special Life Plan to about 54,000 members of 35 credit unions.
La Equidad, Colombia
La Equidad is a mutual insurance company owned by credit unions, providing life and disability insurance to more than 30,000 policyholders.
Gemini Life Insurance Company (GLICO), Ghana
GLICO is partnering with rural banks and savings and loans companies to provide life insurance, to more than 1,000 low-income households in Ghana.
ICICI Lombard, India
ICICI Lombard provides non-life insurance products (asset, credit, rural) and is supported by SIDBI.
ICICI Prudential, India
ICICI Prudential offers rural insurance and weather insurance to more than 650,000 people.
INISER, Nicaragua
INSER is providing a group life policy to the clients of an NGO. The NGO is in charge of marketing and premium collection.
Madison Insurance, Zambia
This private insurance company partners with four MFIs to provide credit life and funeral insurance to about 61,000 people.
New Jubilee, Pakistan
This is a Pakistan-based general insurance company offering microinsurance with the MFI Kashf as partner.
TUW SKOK, Poland
This mutual insurance company owned by credit union network is providing property, savings completion and AD&D to more than 93,000 persons.
Zurich Financial Services, Switzerland
Zurich offers microinsurance in Latin America (Mexico) through an association of credit unions (AMUCSS). It also plans microinsurance development actions in Africa and Asia.
Eureko Re, The Netherlands
Eureko Re (former Interpolis Re) is providing reinsurance to various mutual microinsurance entities, in Sri Lanka and Philippines in co-operation with MIAN.
Munich Re, Germany
Through the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) Munich Re is trying to find insurance solutions to deal with the effects of climate change especially in developing countries.
Swiss Re, Switzerland
Swiss Re is reinsuring a crop microinsurance scheme in India through a public-private partnership and is operating in other emerging markets like Mexico and Turkey.
Belgian Raiffeisen Foundation (BRS), Belgium
BRS supports local savings, loans and insurance initiatives according to co-operative principles. BRS considers it very important for these activities to grow into independent operations. Its support includes in depth technical assistance, training and financial support.
Centre d’Innovation Financière (CIF), Burkina Faso
CIF is a network of credit union partners, aiming to support its members through innovation and product development. It started a life insurance scheme in 2003, called “Régime de Prévoyance Crédit” RPC.
Friends of Women’s World Banking (FWWB), India
FWWB is facilitating linkages between its MFI/NGO partners and Insurance Providers with regards to life insurance, health insurance, livestock insurance, asset insurance and weather insurance.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Germany
GTZ in India is working to ascertain the need for microinsurance and to identify efficient networks to market and sell it. GTZ is also helping with NGOs’ training in all aspects of the insurance business.
Healing Fields Foundation (HFF), India
HFF is a NGO providing health management expertise to support organisations and people involved in the development of healthcare for the rural poor.
International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF), United Kingdom
ICMIF is a non-profit organisation with 120 members in 64 countries. Core services include reinsurance, training and technical assistance, development, research publications, mutual fund investments, professional networks and conferences.
Micro Insurance Academy, India
The Micro Insurance Academy (MIA) is a Delhi-based charitable trust dedicated to evidence-based studies, training and advisory services for microinsurance units serving the poor.
Micro Insurance Agency, USA
The Micro Insurance Agency is an insurance broker and a subsidiary of Opportunity International. It is involved, among others, in design and back-office administration of microinsurance.
Micro Insurance Association Netherlands (MIAN), The Netherlands
MIAN is an organisation of insurance professionals providing on a voluntary bases consultancy services for the development of microinsurance, particularly focusing on co-operative insurance.
MicroInsurance Centre, USA
MicroInsurance Centre, LLC is a consulting organization that works with insurers and delivery channels to develop partnerships with the goal of providing low-income people around the world access to quality insurance products.
Munich Re Foundation, Germany
The Munich Re Foundation is cooperating with some microinsurance and disaster management programmes and is the initiator of the International Microinsurance Conference.
Quindiem Consulting (Pty) Ltd., South Africa
Quindiem is a consulting firm of actuaries and risk managers, that has a microfinance division. Its main experience is in life, health and non-life insurance in Africa, as well as in insurance regulation.
Rabobank Foundation, The Netherlands
Rabobank Foundation funds technical assistance, capacity building and initial operating expenses for mutual microinsurance providers.
