DENNIS B. Funa, the chief of the Insurance Commission (IC), has been elected as chairman of the Asian Reinsurance Corp. (Asian Re), an intergovernmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap).
Funa is the second Filipino to be installed in this leadership post by its 10 member-states, the IC’s report to the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
“As chairman of Asian Re, we shall have the opportunity to
lead the corporation to greater heights, and moreover, we will be in a good
position to encourage better reinsurance cooperation among various national
reinsurers, which will effectively spread insurers’ industry risks,
particularly catastrophe risks, and allow them to further diversify their
portfolio—a win-win for
everyone involved,” Funa said.
Funa replaced Abdolnaser Hemmati, who had been appointed as governor of the Central Bank of Iran.
Then-IC Commissioner Gregoria Cruz Arnaldo became Asian Re’s first chairman from 1979, when it was established, to 1981. Arnaldo was reelected and served until 1983.
Funa said the 10 regular members have varying equity holdings in Asian Re, with Iran and Thailand contributing the largest sums. According to him, the Philippines’s equity is at $500,000 (around P3.71 million at 1979 exchange rate of P7.420 to $1).
Funa was elected last June 28 at Asian Re’s headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, for a two-year term, with reelection.
Besides the Philippines, the organization has nine other member-states from the Unescap, namely: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Iran, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.