IDB2136 - Director, Underwriting

Business Unit: ICIEC-Islamic Corp for Ins of Inv & Export Credit
Division: Not Applicable
Department: Not Applicable
Country: Saudi Arabia
Location: Saudi Arabia - Jeddah
Closing date: 02-Oct-2018

Underwriting Department:

 

Headed by a Director, the position is reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer. The department consists of the following functions:

  • Insurance Operations (Commercial Risks) Division (IOC)

  • Insurance Operations (Sovereign Risks) Division (IOS)

  • Underwriting Support (UWS)

Director, Underwriting:

The role holder is responsible for developing and implementing the strategy and business plans for the Department of Underwriting. The role holder is required to ensure the Department works in alignment with the overall Underwriting as far as underwriting of type of risks, Policy Administration as well as Credit Information plans and ICIEC objectives. He also ensures that all underwriters are equipped to support the change in business focus towards commercial and sovereign businesses. He is responsible in ensuring adherence to the guidelines and effectively managing all underwriting operations, policy administration and credit information management.

Strategic Responsibilities

  • Directs the development and implementation of the Department of Underwriting plans, in line with the corporate objectives. 
  • Directs and manages the Department of Underwriting mandates, providing leadership and facilitating work processes in order to achieve high performance standards. 
  • Interprets and implements change in the Department of Underwriting providing guidance and support to the staff members of the Department necessary for continuous improvement. 
  • Ensures compliance with organizational policies, procedures and quality standards in the Department of Underwriting.

Strategy and Planning

  • Develops and defines Underwriting, Policy Administration and Credit Information strategy and business plans in coordination with the Chief Executive Officer to drive the focus of business towards commercial and sovereign products to ensure maintenance of a balanced portfolio in terms of product mix (short term, medium term and long term) and achieve diversification in Member Countries. 
  • Guides the Managers of the Department in undertaking concrete action steps to expand the technical skills of Underwriters to ensure that they are equipped to assist in the operation. 
  • Works in coordination with the Director, Business Development and Manager, Risk Management to develop strategy and action plan for generating more business and exploring opportunities in Member Countries where ICIEC has low market penetration.

Underwriting Operations

  • Establishes a framework guiding all underwriting operations to ensure alignment with the corporate strategy. 
  • Liaises with Managers of the Department to define business and operational plans for underwriting and monitors the performance to ensure achievement of targets as per the established plan. 
  • Monitors the underwriting operations to ensure adherence to quality standards to minimize the number of claims and identifies opportunities to improve the quality of financial analysis by enhancing the skills of the underwriters to conduct thorough financial analysis and improve the turnaround time, etc. 
  • Monitors the underwriting operations to ensure adherence to quality standards to minimize the number of claims and identifies opportunities to improve the quality of country risk analysis by enhancing the skills of the underwriters to conduct thorough political and socio-economic analysis, project financing analysis etc. 
  • Ensures that the underwriting operations and defining credit limits are undertaken in accordance with the established risk management framework, and regulatory guidelines of the Corporation to minimize the risk of claims. 
  • Provides technical guidance on matters related to defining cover attitude, Risk tolerance, development of policy - terms of policy, premium, credit limit, tenure of coverage etc.

Underwriting Support

  • Participates in the Underwriting Committee meetings to analyse and discuss all cases of underwriting based on the due diligence of the transactions and inputs derived from a financial and market risk analysis to take an informed decision on the acceptance/rejection of transactions. 
  • Participates in Claims Committee meetings as and when required to provide inputs related to the policy terms or any other information pertaining to insurance transactions and assists in informed decision making. 
  • Supports the Department of Business Development by providing inputs on improvement of existing products and development of new products based on analysis of customer needs through routine underwriting operations. 
  • Manages in close coordination with Manager, Insurance Operations (Commercial Risks) the relationship with Non-Member Country ECAs and Multinational initiations involved in credit and political risk insurance business in ICIEC Member Countries.

Policy Administration

  • Defines guidelines for registration of applications and processing policy offers, policy issuance, endorsements and any back office function in general regarding all ICIEC lines of business. 
  • Ensures complete and correct information in the system to utilize the same at the time of premium collections, claims, recovery, etc. 
  • Supervise the Managers of the Department to ensure proper management of the policy administration to be an enabler for business generation. 
  • Guides the Manager of the Department in improving the automation of the policy administration function in close coordination with the Information Technology.  
  • Directs the Managers of the Department to be the custodian of ICIEC products documentation 
  • Guides the Managers of the Department in improving the interaction between the Underwriting team with Business Development team and other internal stakeholders such as IT, Claims & Recovery, Legal, Finance, etc.

Credit Information

  • Directs the Head, Underwriting Support in developing guidelines for quality credit information procurement and management. 
  • Evaluates the performance of the vendors based on turnaround time, quality & accuracy of information and pricing. 
  • Examines the questionnaires and requests conducted with the Underwriters and end-users on the quality of information received by CIEC from its vendors.

People Management Responsibilities

  • Defines goals and key performance indicators for each member of the team and ensures effective application of the ICIEC Performance and Development Review process. 
  • Directs planning and selection of manpower in Department of Underwriting, in line with the business and operational plans. 
  • Ensures high level of employee engagement and capability development by providing on-going feedback and coaching team members within the Department of Underwriting.

 

 

Experience:

Prior experience in Underwriting or Financial Analysis with at least 17 years of relevant experience in Managing Underwriting function/Financial Analysis/Country Research is essential, in Export Credit and Investment Insurance or Banking Industry.

Qualifications:

Professional Certifications (as applicable)
  • Relevant insurance or finance professional certifications such as CII / CFA are preferred

 

 

Field of Study
  • Economics / Finance / Business Administration

 

 

Academic Qualifications and Relevant Experience

Qualification Level

High School/ Diploma

Bachelor’s Degree

Master’s Degree

Doctorate

Experience

 

20 Years

17 Years

14 Years

 

 

 

 

Business Language Skills
  • Good command of written and spoken English essential, proficiency in additional languages such as Arabic, French is an added advantage

 

 

Other Information:

General Key Performance Indicators
  • Response time in reverting to customers. 
  • Quality of underwriting. 
    • Claims ratio. 
    • PLs Outstanding
  • Diversification of portfolio: Top Country exposure.
  • Acceptance Ratio.
  • Premium generated from existing customers.
  • Achievement of the Business Plan Objectives.
  • Customer Satisfaction.
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