News archives
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One of India’s fastest growing general insurance companies Bharti AXA General Insurance Company has announced that it has received the prestigious Excellence Award for the year by the Institute of Economic Studies (IES).
Along with the Excellence award for the company, the Institute of Economic Studies has also conferred the Udyog Rattan Award to Bharti AXA General Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Amarnath Ananthanarayanan at IES’s Current Economic Scenario seminar 2014 held in Bangalore on March 27, 2014.
After receiving the award, Dr. Ananthanarayanan said, "It is a great honour for us to receive the award and to be acknowledged for contributing to India's economic growth. We thank our partners, customers, colleagues and our promoters Bharti and AXA for their strong support, guidance and the confidence they have placed in us. We at Bharti AXA believe that insurance plays an important role in protecting organization and individual aspirations. Bharti AXA through our comprehensive and innovative insurance solutions,seek to redefine industry standards by offering unparalleled and empathetic service to every Indian."
Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Ltd is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises, a leading Indian business group and AXA, a world leader in financial protection. Bharti Enterprises holds 74% stake in the joint venture while AXA Group holds the rest 26%.
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The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Cholamandalam M S General Insurance Company Limited to pay up the insurance amount to the family of a man who died on railway tracks at Chembur Railway Station while crossing.
The insurer had rejected the claim of the victim’s wife Shalini Gupta citing that the victim was trespassing the railway tracks and since it is an illegal act, the firm would not compensate.
Later, the complainant Shalini Gupta moved to the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission where the forum observed that the processing of the claim on the part of the insurer was heartless and mechanical. The officers processing such claims should be intelligent enough to read documents properly and refer matters to their lawyers when in doubt.
The forum found insurance firm guilty for not settling the claim and ordered to pay the complainant, Shalini Gupta, an insurance amount of Rs 10 lac.
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According to a study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), the apex industry body, about 65 percent of people in India having health insurance policies, prefer to choose private sector health insurers. The public sector insurers have managed to win confident of just 35 percent of the insured people.
However, as per the study titled 'Health Insurance in India: A review,' in terms of premium, the public sector insurance companies account for maximum share of over 61percent.
Releasing the report, ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said, “Private voluntary health insurance will continue to grow in terms of covering the non-vulnerable, the middle class and higher income segments of the population that can afford to purchase private health insurance.”
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Private sector insurer Bharti AXA General Insurance Company has decided to focus on commercial lines, which has seen a formidable growth of 40% in the recent years. The insurer has witnessed growth in Marine and engineering segments along with various others despite the overall slump in general insurance.
The insurer will reduce its dependence on motor insurance segment step-by-step, and will focus on commercial lines and increase its share in the total business from the current 13% to up to 20 % next fiscal year.
“With the regulated pricing mechanism continuing in third party motor insurance, we will maintain our exposure in commercial vehicles to the minimum stipulated levels. In two years we expect commercial vehicles to account for 10% of the motor insurance revenue, with remaining 90% coming from private motor insurance,” said Bharti Axa Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Mr. Amarnath Ananthanarayanan.
"Globally AXA is a strong player in commercial lines and we are getting aggressive in India as well”, he added.
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Private sector leading insurer SBI General Insurance Company has set a 60% target in premium growth in the fiscal year 2014-15 by maintaining its growth momentum of recent years.
SBI General Insurance is the joint venture between State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender and Australian insurer Insurance Australia Group. SBI holds the majority stake in the joint venture.
SBI General had a gross written premium of Rs. 770.85 crore in fiscal year 2012-13, and has registered about 55 % growth in premium of around Rs. 1,200 crore in fiscal year 2013-14.
Speaking to the reporters, SBI General Managing Director & Chief Executive, Mr. Bhaskar J. Sarma said, “In this fiscal we expect to grow at around 60 per cent, which we feel is reasonable.”
“This fiscal, our focus will be on the motor, health and commercial lines among other things,” Mr. Sarma said, adding, “SBI General will also focus on increasing the marine insurance pie during this period.”
The insurer which draws around 60 % of its business from banking channel also said it would focus more on the other channels like brokers.
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The much awaited Health Insurance Third Party Administrator (TPA) for state-run general insurance companies will start operations only by the end of the year, as against the scheduled April 2014. The TPA is waiting for the necessary regulatory license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).
The Health Insurance TPA of India is the in-house third party administrator to handle health insurance claims of the state-run insurers, and was incorporated in August 2013. Currently, these claims are handled by external TPAs.
The Health Insurance TPA of India Ltd is a joint venture of four state-owned insurers- National Insurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance and New India Assurance. Each holds 23.75 % stake in the joint venture, while the state-owned reinsurer General Insurance Corporation (GIC) of India holds the rest 5%.
Once the TPA starts its operation, the claim settlement from external agencies will gradually be transferred to the Health Insurance TPA of India.
As per the industry experts, the common in-house TPA will reduce the claims ratio of insurance companies. Also, it will reduce expenditure for the member insurance companies; as they pay about 6% of premiums to TPA for settling claims. Currently, most companies in the health insurance space dependent on TPA for claim processing, which leads to delay in claims settlement.
Chairman and Managing Director of New India Assurance, Sri G Srinivasan has been appointed as the chairman of the board of the TPA Company.
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The insurance watchdog Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has asked Insurance Marketing Firms (IMFs) to submit their views on draft guidelines by April 15, 2014. The draft issued recently by the regulator, advocates setting up new distribution system allowing IMFs to market and service insurance, apart from marketing other financial products. These include products of mutual fund companies; pension products of PFRDA; and other financial products marketed by Investment advisors of Securities and Exchange Board of India through the financial service executives (FSE) engaged by an IMF.
The regulator had been considering over allowing distribution companies to have multiple tie-ups with insurers- a model akin to independent financial advisor, based on the recommendations of the Govardhan Committee on distribution. In this connection, meetings were held with representatives of life and non-life insurance companies and with a cross-section of marketing personnel in life and general insurance industry at Hyderabad. A working group was constituted having five CEOs each from life and non-life insurance companies to study the concept and recommend a suitable model.
Here, insurance sales person (ISP) will be an individual employed by IMF to undertake solicitation or marketing of insurance products who is granted a certificate issued by the authority. Further, FSE would be an individual employed by an IMF authorised to undertake financial service activities such as investment advice through an investment advisor who is granted licence by Sebi, mutual fund salespersons holding a certification under Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and registered with an association of asset management companies of mutual funds.
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One of country’s largest private sector insurers ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited has launched iCare II, an improved online term insurance plan. Earlier, in 2011, the insurer had launched iCare, which was the first no-medical online term insurance plan.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank, India’s biggest private sector bank, and Prudential plc, a UK-based leading international financial services group.
With this new offering, ICICI Pru has started price war. Its premiums are attractively lower and now competing within the top 5 low premium online term plans. Unlike iCare, which has a maximum limit of sum assured of Rs 1.5 crore, iCare-II has no maximum limit of sum assured.
In other significant changes, the insurer has reduced the maximum entry age to 60 (from 65 in iCare) and therefore, the maximum maturity age to 65 years (from 70 in iCare).
With growing number of internet users, the online term insurance market has witnessed a rapid growth. As of now, there are approximately 25,000 online term plans of more than 15 life insurance companies.
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