GOVT. ASKS LIC TO OPEN SPECIAL OFFICE IN UTTARAKHAND TO SETTLE CLAIMS

The Union Finance Minister Sri P. Chidambaram has directed insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India to open special camp office in flood-hit state Uttarakhand and soften norms especially in case of stranded people to settle life insurance claims efficiently.

After a meeting with Sri Chidambaram, the acting chairman of LIC Sri Thomas Mathew said, “LIC will be opening a special office in that area to attend to all the claimants and relax the usual requirements for claim settlement.” As per the current norms, the state-run insurer requires to wait for seven years period to consider a missing person dead. .” “In this precarious situation, an indemnity bond can be taken from the claimants in such cases and the claims may be settled on priority,” Sri Chidambaram added. .” The same norms were applied by the insurer in Tamil Nadu during the tsunami and in Gujarat during the earthquake. .” According to media reports, thousands of people are feared to have died in the natural-calamity. So far 822 dead bodies have been recovered and about 8,000 are still stranded. The state government has decided to photograph and maintain the DNA profile unidentified victims which will help LIC to settle claims.

 Source: http://www.insuringindia.com/

CANARA HSBC OBC LIFE CONFERRED WITH INSURER OF THE YEAR

Private sector insurer Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company has been conferred with the prestigious – Life Insurance Company of the Year Award 2013, at the Indian Insurance Awards 2013 held on Tuesday.

Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Chief Executive Officer Mr. John Holder and Marketing Director Mrs. Vishakha R.M. received the award at a function in Mumbai organized by Fintelekt, SP Media for demonstrating overall leadership in product mix, revenues, customer mix and business model effectiveness during the fiscal year 2012-13.
The company, operating its business through bancassurance model, showed rich growth in last fiscal year 2012-13 across a variety of parameters such as growth of premiums and persistency of business. It is the fastest Indian life insurance company to cross Rs.500 crore, Rs.1,000 crore, Rs.1,500 crore, Rs.2,000 crore and Rs.2,500 crore in weighted premium income till date.

The Gross Written Premium (GWP) of the company as on May 31, 2013 stood at Rs. 6,740.6 cr and the number of policies sold is 396,329. Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company is a joint venture in which two public sector banks Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce hold 51% and 23% stakes respectively while HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings Ltd holds 26%.

Source: http://www.insuringindia.com/

L & T GENERAL LAUNCHES PRE-PAID CARD FOR INSTANT CASHLESS CLAIM APPROVAL

In order to reduce cashless claim authorisation time in health insurance, private sector insurer L & T General Insurance Company in association with E-Meditek Global has launched a pre-paid card - MediCash Card. Visa and Ratnakar Bank are the other partners in this alliance.

 Sri Joydeep Roy, Chief Executive and Whole-Time Director of L&T Insurance Company said, “This card facilitates its customers to get instant approval and on-the-spot payment facilities, making the crucial period of wait almost negligible.” However, this card is currently available only to L & T Insurance's corporate customers, but will be extended to individual customers by the end of this year, Sri Roy added.

As per the insurer, share of health insurance was around 21% in L&T General Insurance Company's Gross Written Premium (GWP) of Rs 182 crore registered for last fiscal year. 
L &T General Insurance Company is a part of Larsen & Toubro Limited which is an Indian multinational conglomerate having business interests in financial services, information technology, construction, manufacturing goods and engineering.

Source: http://www.insuringindia.com/

 

INSURANCE STAFFERS CANNOT BE INVOLVED IN ELECTORAL PROCESS: HC

Hearing a petition filed by state-run insurer Oriental Insurance Company Limited challenging the orders of the Collector and District Election Officer requiring 38 staffers from its regional office for electoral process, the honorable High Court of Bombay on Wednesday nullified the order of the Election Commission, saying an insurance company is a local authority; hence its staffers cannot be involved in any election-related work. The petition was heard by a division bench headed by Justice S J Vazifdar.

The advocate of Oriental Insurance Company, Sri Arvind Kothari, in its argument said that the Election Commission did not have the power to requisition insurance company employees. In other hand, the government advocate Sri D A Nalawade argued that the Election Commission had powers and the quantum of work justified the requisition.

Giving the reference of the Supreme Court's criteria, the judges said an insurance company cannot be called local authority. The requisitioning was illegal.

Source: http://www.insuringindia.com/

IRDA MAY TIGHTEN NORMS FOR INSURANCE SALE THROUGH BANKS

The committee set up by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has recommended the regulator to ask banks to renew at least half the life insurance policies they sell, failing which they may lose the licence to distribute insurance products.

In year 2011, the regulator had ushered in a minimum policy renewal criteria for individual insurance agents. The regulator directed insurance companies to terminate the contracts of agents who fail to get at least half the policies sold by them renewed in the subsequent year.

“We have noticed some instances of forced selling of insurance products by banks while advancing loans to customers. Hence, we are looking at calculating loss ratio (the ratios of premiums paid to the claims settled) in respect of business procured by banks so as to assess the quality of the business,” a senior official from IRDA said.

Further, the official said, “One of the factors that affect persistency is the after-sale service provided to the policyholder. Currently, large numbers of policies are left without being serviced after the policy is sold, resulting in the policies getting lapsed.”

The insurance regulator is in process of finalising bancassurance guidelines and is expected to come out with the final report by August this year.

(Source: www.insuringindia.com)

SHRIRAM LIFE TARGETING SALES OF OVER 2 LAKH POLICIES IN FY’ 2013-14

Private sector insurer Shriram Life Insurance Company has planned to sell over two lakh policies in the current fiscal year and wishes to register a 30% growth on its new business premium. The company had sold 1.54 lakh policies with a total gross premium of Rs 618 crore and posted a huge growth of 46.4% in its net profit at Rs 82 crore in the last fiscal year.

For the financial year which ended on March 31, 2012 the company had sold 1.31 lakh policies.

Charged up with the result, Smt. Akhila Srinivasan, Managing Director, Shriram Life Insurance said, “During the year 2012-13, the new business premium grew by 7% over last year to Rs 421 crore. This growth is commendable in times when industry has degrown by 6%.”

The company's current paid up capital was Rs 175 crore, she added.

"We will continue to consolidate in southern market, but our major focus is to expand North and West. We plan to add around 50-70 new offices in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat", Shriram Life Insurance, CEO, Manoj Jain said.

Chennai based Shriram Life Insurance Company is a part of the diversified Rs 60,000 crore financial services conglomerate Shriram Group. 

(Source: www.insuringindia.com)