As the extent of the financial carnage caused by pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns becomes apparent, governments around the world are looking for ways to conjure up money to plug every manner of funding shortfall. The South African government is already making noises about dusting off the Apartheid era prescribed assets handbook to force private investors to queue up for its government and state-owned entity (SOE) bonds. Many financial services firms are opposed to the reintroduction of this policy, as evidenced by comments made by Dawie de Villiers, CEO at Alexander Forbes, during a webinar titled ‘partnering for better financial wellbeing outcomes’.

One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare and insurance professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic is how to interpret the mortality, morbidity and treatment outcomes data being generated globally. They must consider hundreds of country-specific data sets alongside countless independent clinical studies that, although purporting to reflect similar statistical measures, are often wildly different. “We are probably in the second wave of pandemic [in developed countries] and at the peak of the first wave in many developing countries,” said Emile Stipp, chief actuary at Discovery. He added that the reported infection and mortality rates varied widely from one country to the next due to different testing protocols, among other factors. Stipp was presenting at a ‘Pandemic Progression Insights’ webinar.