The landscape of microinsurance in Sri Lanka 2016

Microinsurance policies issued (1.46 million) reached 6.9% of the total population in 2015. There are also a number of social security services in the country, including those provided by the government and the informal sector. The majority of these are however fragmented and provide inadequate benefits. The increase in microinsurance policies in 2015 can be attributed to personal accident cover, where life and personal accident both accounted for almost 98% of the microinsurance covers. The reported negligible proportion of health covers is primarily because it is provided as a secondary, add-on cover to other products.
 

There are no special regulatory provisions in Sri Lanka for microinsurance and a number of informal microinsurance schemes operate outside the insurance law. Furthermore, the Regulation of the Industry Act does not include any provision on the regulation and supervision of mutual insurance companies. A few NGOs provide microinsurance services to poor households at affordable prices but operate outside the insurance law.