Industry

Compliance and risk software for insurers in Zambia

Insurers in Zambia are licensed and supervised by the Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) under the Insurance Act No. 38 of 2021, which requires periodic returns, solvency reporting and conduct standards. They are also reporting entities for anti-money laundering purposes, so premium receipts and claim payments have to be screened and suspicious activity reported to the Financial Intelligence Centre, and policyholder data falls under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021. On top of that sits the insurer's own risk management: underwriting risk, portfolio concentration, operational incidents and the transition to IFRS 17 reporting.

ERMAML, the Ontech Risk & Compliance Suite, gives an insurer one platform for those obligations. The compliance register prepares PIA return layouts from live policy and claim data, the AML module screens customers at onboarding and payments before settlement, identity is verified against the national and company registries before a policy binds, and the ERM module holds the underwriting-risk register, conduct monitoring and an IFRS 17 gap analysis with treatment costs in kwacha.

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Key capabilities

PIA return preparation

Solvency and statutory return layouts are aggregated from the live policy and claim books instead of rebuilt in spreadsheets each period.

Underwriting-risk register

Risk acceptance is recorded against a register with a portfolio concentration view, so judgement-based decisions become traceable.

Claim-side AML

Premium and settled-claim feeds pass through a screening gate before payout, keeping claim payments inside the AML loop.

Identity at onboarding

An applicant's NRC is verified against the national registry and a corporate client against PACRA and the ZRA taxpayer registry before the policy binds.

Conduct and compliance monitoring

Conduct obligations are tracked as controls linked to the risk register, so breaches are visible before an audit finds them.

IFRS 17 readiness

A gap-analysis dashboard maps current disclosures against IFRS 17 requirements with treatment cost tracked in kwacha.

Cyber and data protection

Policyholder PII is encrypted at column level, with a right-to-erasure workflow and cyber-risk controls for the insurer's own systems.

How it works

Policy administration and claims systems are connected through read-only feeds during discovery.
Policyholders and beneficiaries are back-loaded and screened against sanctions and PEP lists to establish a baseline.
New applicants are verified against the NRC, PACRA and ZRA registries and screened before a policy is issued.
Premium receipts and claim settlements pass the screening gate, and hits become cases under maker-checker review.
Underwriting, conduct and operational risks are maintained in the register with controls and indicators.
PIA returns, board reports and the IFRS 17 gap view are produced from the same live data.

Benefits

Returns from live data

Solvency and statutory figures are aggregated from the books the insurer already maintains, which removes the quarterly rebuild.

No AML blind spot at claims

Screening before settlement covers the point where insurance is most exposed to misuse.

Identity confirmed before the policy binds

Registry verification replaces reliance on photocopied identity documents.

One register for underwriting, conduct and operations

The chief risk officer and the compliance officer read the same register the auditor will examine.

Who it is for

Long-term and general insurers licensed by the PIA.
Compliance officers responsible for PIA returns and FIC reporting.
Chief risk officers managing underwriting, conduct and operational risk.
Finance teams preparing for IFRS 17 disclosures.

Zambia-specific considerations

The PIA regulates insurance under the Insurance Act No. 38 of 2021, which separates long-term and general business and requires licensing, periodic returns and policyholder protection. Insurers align their solvency monitoring to the PIA's requirements, and ERMAML's compliance register is organised around those obligations and their filing calendar.

Insurance is a reporting sector under Zambia's anti-money laundering framework, and claim payments are a recognised channel for laundering. Screening the settled-claim feed before payout, and verifying identity against the national registry at onboarding, address the two points where an insurer is most exposed.

How ERMAML addresses this

Policy and claim books feed compliance directly

The insurance adapter reads policy and claim data so PIA returns, the screening gate and the underwriting register all work from the insurer's own records.

Screening at onboarding and at payout

Applicants are screened and registry-verified before a policy binds, and premiums and claims are screened again before money moves.

IFRS 17 gap analysis inside the risk register

Readiness gaps are recorded as treatments with owners, deadlines and kwacha cost, so the transition is managed like any other risk programme.

Frequently asked questions

What does the PIA require from insurers in Zambia?

The Pensions and Insurance Authority licenses insurers under the Insurance Act No. 38 of 2021 and requires periodic statutory returns and financial statements, solvency and capital standards it sets, conduct and policyholder-protection standards, and complaints handling. Insurers should confirm the current requirements and forms with the PIA directly.

Do insurers have anti-money laundering obligations?

Yes. Insurers are reporting entities under Zambia's anti-money laundering laws, which means customer due diligence, record keeping, monitoring of premiums and claims for suspicious activity, and reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre through goAML.

How does ERMAML screen claims?

Premium receipts and settled claims pass through a detective screening gate that checks the policyholder, beneficiary and payee against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media lists before payout. Hits are worked as cases under maker-checker review.

Can it verify a policyholder's identity?

An individual's NRC is checked against the national registry and a corporate client against PACRA and the ZRA taxpayer registry at onboarding and at screening time. An NRC that belongs to someone else forces a manual four-eyes review before the policy binds.

Does ERMAML help with IFRS 17?

It provides a gap-analysis dashboard that maps current disclosures against IFRS 17 requirements and records each gap as a treatment with an owner, deadline and cost in kwacha. Actuarial measurement itself remains in the insurer's finance and actuarial systems.

Sources

See ERMAML on your own data

Request a demo with Ontech Solutions in Lusaka and see sanctions screening, KYC, transaction monitoring, goAML reporting and the risk register working together in one platform.