Lebanon's Insurance Reform: The Summer Deadline Has Passed. Where Are the Rules?

Lebanon's insurance sector finally has a reform plan, and that deserves credit. After more than a decade without a permanent head, the Insurance Control Commission (ICC) has had one since mid-2025. The National Insurance Board, dormant since 2017, has been reactivated. The Minister of Economy and Trade, Amer Bisat, has said the 1968 Insurance Code will be replaced with modern legislation.

A plan, however, is measured by its deadlines. Several of them have now passed.

THE TIMETABLE

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On 15 June 2026, Minister Bisat presented the insurance reform strategy. According to Business News, it set out three pillars:

- Insurers: restore capital adequacy, move to risk-based capital requirements, encourage voluntary consolidation and introduce rules on premium float. Target: mid-2027. - Brokers: higher capital standards, a professional code of conduct, regulation of commissions and action against unauthorised intermediation. Target: end of summer 2026. - Legacy issues and wider oversight: settle the unresolved claims from the Port of Beirut explosion, deal with the collapsed life insurance market, and bring previously unsupervised entities under oversight, such as third-party administrators, mutual associations, local reinsurers and actuarial practices.

Earlier, on 19 January 2026, the ministry raised the guarantee required from insurance brokers to USD 20,000 immediately, with a target of USD 50,000 over three years. New brokers had to comply at once. Existing brokers were given six months.

THE DEADLINES HAVE PASSED

The six-month grace period for existing brokers ended around July 2026. The broker framework was due by the end of the summer. It is now October.

We could not find any public information on how many brokers met the new guarantee requirement, whether any licences were suspended, or whether the code of conduct and the commission rules have been issued.

This matters to the policyholder. Unauthorised intermediation means that a person may pay a premium to someone who has no licence and no guarantee behind them. Until the rules are in force and published, the policyholder has no simple way to check who they are dealing with.

THE BIGGEST LEGACY: LIFE POLICIES AND THE PORT

According to figures in the minister's presentation, life insurance premiums were around USD 550 million a year before the crisis. Today they are less than 5% of that volume.

Behind that number are people who saved for years through life and savings policies. The strategy names this as a legacy issue, but we could not find a date for a solution.

The same applies to the Port of Beirut explosion. More than six years after 4 August 2020, the strategy still lists the related claims as unresolved.

OUR QUESTIONS

To the Ministry of Economy and Trade and the Insurance Control Commission:

1. How many existing brokers met the USD 20,000 guarantee requirement by the end of the six-month period? What happened to those who did not? 2. Have the broker code of conduct and the commission rules been issued? If not, what is the new date? 3. How will a policyholder be able to verify whether an intermediary is licensed? 4. What is the timetable for resolving the claims arising from the Port of Beirut explosion, and how many claims are still open? 5. What will happen to life and savings policies written before the crisis? In which currency, and on what terms, will policyholders be paid? 6. When will the draft of the new Insurance Code be published for public consultation?

If the institutions concerned wish to respond, we are ready to publish their position.

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