Liberia: Transforming Insurance Supervision

Liberia’s insurance regulatory system, shaped by the 2013 Insurance Act and administered by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), faced a dual challenge: a legal framework that appeared strong on paper but lacked operational clarity, and a supervisory capacity that remained underdeveloped due to persistent institutional, technical, and financial limitations. Despite borrowing from internationally accepted models, the draft amendments to the Insurance Act introduced during 2023 to 2024 risked entrenching inefficiencies. The proposed law blurred the distinction between regulatory functions and government policy roles, introducing unclear mandates, conflicting responsibilities, and budgetary ambiguities. At the same time, Liberia had no automated systems to support risk-based supervision (RBS), a modern supervisory approach required by global standards. With a fragmented reporting culture and overstretched supervisory staff, the CBL could not proactively monitor systemic risk, emerging threats, or market compliance.

The U.S. Treasury OTA commissioned GG International to lead a comprehensive assistance program from 2022 to 2024. Under the technical leadership of Russell Leith (Insurance Finance & Risk) and Shaan Stevens (Legal Advisor), the project took a two-track approach:

The coordinated legal and technological reform effort has created a blueprint for modern supervision in fragile states::