The vision for an association to represent those in the developing world came from lady lawyer Gregoria Cruz Arnaldo, the longest serving Insurance Commissioner of the Philippines.

 

Commissioner Arnaldo was a Bar topnotcher who was appointed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to head the Insurance Commission in 1970.

 

Her leadership paved the way to the glorious days of the insurance regulatory body. Under her watch, major insurance regulations were redefined, which proved to be beneficial both to the Philippine insurance industry and the insuring public.

​

Commissioner Arnaldo was also very active in regional insurance cooperation.

​

Aside from AIRDC, she was instrumental in uniting insurance supervisory authorities in the ASEAN region through the ASEAN lnsurance Council, and the ASEAN Association of lnsurance Commissioners, and Association of Third World Insurance Supervisory Authority.