During his keynote speech at International Adviser’s International Fund Links Forum 2014, Dunbar said the market had fallen to £6.2bn since 2011, despite growth in Latin America.
He said an unpredicted and ongoing decline in the North Asian market, and a temporary drop in UK and European sales, had temporarily offset “strong” growth in other areas of the market.
“If you don’t have a solution for the future, it is going to be an issue for growth,” he said.
His comments came after over 60% of the delegates present at the event said they were optimistic about the future of the life industry, while a quarter remained neutral and just 16% said they were pessimistic.
He added that the industry had successfully begun its move away from a focus on commission, but said the pace of the shift has been “slow”.
Referencing the ban on indemnity commission in Hong Kong and the FAIR review in Singapore, Dunbar said: “We do not know the subsequent implications on markets in the region and throughout the rest of the world.”
He also said the industry needed to diversify and push further into markets such as Latin America, expat Africa, and the Middle East: “At some point, a period of geographical change will occur in the market, but it is hard to tell when.”
