The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has called for greater competition, digitalization and faster claims handling to expand the country’s insurance sector, where insurance penetration remains at just 0.7 percent of gross domestic product.
The call was made at a meeting of the Competition Consultative Group on strengthening competition in Pakistan’s insurance sector. The CCP said insurance density in the country is around $12 per capita, highlighting significant room for market expansion.
CCP Chairman Farid Ahmad Tarar said insurance plays an important role in managing risks, mobilizing long term savings and supporting economic activity. He said greater competition could encourage innovation, improve service quality and expand consumer choice.
A CCP presentation showed that Pakistan has 44 insurers, including 36 conventional insurers, seven Takaful operators and one reinsurer, with around 10.4 million policies. The commission identified market concentration, entry barriers, concentration in bancassurance, low awareness, information gaps, claims disputes and delays, limited innovation and weak digitalization as key challenges.
Waseem Khan, Director and Head of the Life Policy and Approval Department at the Insurance Division, highlighted digitalization, implementation of mandatory insurance, expansion of agricultural insurance and adoption of a risk based solvency framework. The Insurance Bill, 2026, was also discussed during the meeting.
Industry representatives said agriculture, small and medium sized enterprises, retail, microfinance, health, Takaful, microinsurance and rural markets offer significant opportunities for expansion. They also called for better products, stronger reinsurance capacity, improved data infrastructure and greater use of digital tools.
Participants also emphasized easier premium payments, faster claims settlement, responsible selling, transparent disclosures and stronger complaint handling. They said reliable data could improve risk assessment, pricing, fraud detection and claims management, while digitalization could improve the customer experience from purchasing a policy through claims settlement.
CCP chairman said the discussions would help identify areas where competition advocacy, regulatory coordination and policy interventions could strengthen the insurance sector. He said the objective was to support a competitive, contestable and efficient market and improve outcomes for consumers.
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