Press Conference by the Commissioner

(Excerpt)

26 November, 2001

Q.

Taisei Fire & Marine Corporation applied for the legal remedy under the Corporation Reorganization Law last week. Please let us know your opinions.

A.

This morning, Minister had a press conference just after the company filed the application for legal protection under the Corporation Reorganization Law. I suppose the Minister said this failure was caused by the most unexpected event, so to say, and I think quite similarly to the Minister about this case. On the other hand, although it is unquestionable that the September 11th case is an event far beyond anyone's expectation, an insurance company has to be prepared for even such case. Therefore, I admit that this case should further be reviewed from the viewpoint of whether appropriate measures can be taken in advance by factoring in such risks.

Accordingly, I think we must supervise insurance operations more carefully or reinforce supervision systems, keeping this case in mind. As for reinsurance, I would like to see insurance companies manage reinsurance carefully not only as annual profit opportunities but also in the context of managing smallest potentialities of risks, and we ourselves need to supervise the companies. We have learned important lessons from this case, and should shape the course of the future of the insurance companies in the same vein. I believe, more specifically, we have to survey the status of reinsurance transactions of each insurance company and promote more thorough risk controls.