In person
Executive programme in governance, risk and compliance for insurance leaders
Two intensive days for board members, authorised directors and general managers of licensed insurance companies in Iraq. 14 and 15 October 2026 at the Iraqi Insurers and Reinsurers Association, Baghdad.
Governance does not come from the bottom up. However good the compliance and risk staff are, their effect stays limited while the top leadership does not see its own legal responsibility clearly and cannot ask the right questions in the boardroom.
Iraqi law puts direct, personal duties on board members and senior managers of insurance companies: the Insurance Business Regulation Law no. 10 of 2005 makes the board responsible for solvency and for the accuracy of the reports sent to the Insurance Diwan, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Law no. 39 of 2015 attaches consequences to leadership failures in reporting and control, and the Companies Law no. 21 of 1997 defines what board members owe to shareholders and official bodies.
This programme is built for that leadership. Two intensive days, in Arabic, with no lectures: moderated discussions around the table, case studies from the Iraqi market, group decision exercises that mirror real situations a board faces, and a simulated inspection by the Insurance Diwan.
Who it is for: chairs and members of boards of licensed insurance companies, authorised directors and their deputies, general managers and their assistants, executive directors of finance, underwriting, claims and investment, and the chairs of the audit, risk and governance committees. The ideal group is 15 to 25 participants so the discussion stays open.
Each participant leaves with a leader's toolkit: a map of personal legal responsibilities, the ten questions a board should ask before approving any supervisory report, and a model annual agenda for governance, risk and compliance items in board meetings.
Programme
Day 1, 14 October: governance, responsibility and oversight of risk
- Responsibility starts at the top: the personal legal duties of board members and executives under laws 10/2005, 39/2015 and 21/1997, and the limits of delegation
- Governance engineering: board composition and committees (audit, risk, governance), charters, decision register, and the annual governance report: what does the board actually sign?
- Oversight of risk: risk appetite and tolerance limits, reading the risk register with a leader's eye, and the questions that expose a register written for show
- Leadership exercise: a simulated board debates a risk register and faces hard decisions
Day 2, 15 October: compliance and the relationship with the regulators
- Anti-money laundering is a leadership responsibility: the leadership's obligations under law 39/2015, the relationship with the AML/CFT reporting officer, and when the leadership itself enters the circle of accountability
- Read before you sign: a critical reading of compliance and internal audit reports, the three lines of defence, and how to tell a good report from a cosmetic one
- Leadership in front of the regulator: a simulated Insurance Diwan inspection at senior-management level, and building the institutional response to an official letter of observations
- Closing session: each leader commits to one step to apply in their company within 30 days; certificates
What you take away
- Know your personal legal responsibility as a board member or executive under the three laws that govern insurance in Iraq
- Judge how sound your company's governance structure really is: board composition, committees, charters and decision records
- Exercise real oversight of risk: approve the risk appetite, read the risk register and hold management to account for remedial plans
- Read supervisory reports critically and ask the right questions before approving them
- Lead the relationship with the Insurance Diwan with confidence, from receiving the inspector to the institutional reply to official observations
- Set a real culture of compliance from the top, by example