Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority requires credit checks for personal insurance policies of EGP 10 million or more and immediate fraud reporting

The Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority has issued updated underwriting risk management standards for individual personal insurance, requiring insurers to check an applicant’s credit standing before issuing policies worth EGP 10 million or more, or the equivalent in foreign currency. The update is aimed at strengthening pre-issuance risk assessment and also requires firms to report fraud and suspected fraud to the authority as soon as it is detected during underwriting. The standards also require insurers to obtain credit information from licensed credit information providers when a client’s income, profession or job does not appear consistent with the insured amount or the premiums due, or when there are doubts about the legitimacy of the application. Firms must verify the applicant’s identity and supporting documents, collect accurate health and financial information, and establish internal systems to detect unusual application patterns and repeated insurance on the same risks. They must also assess whether policy terms and insured amounts are proportionate to the client’s income and to company averages for similar risks in the insured’s geographic area, and carry out a fuller review where needed to test the legitimacy of applications and reduce fraud risk. The measures update earlier risk management criteria set out in Circular No. 8 of 2024. Companies have three months to align their arrangements with the new standards, with the compliance period running from the measure’s entry into force on 16 July. The authority also requires the standards to be incorporated into each insurer’s underwriting policy.