Insurance Sector Review Meeting by DFS and IRDAI

Insurance Sector Review Meeting by DFS and IRDAI
x
Highlights

Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance along with IRDA of India jointly reviewed the performance of the public sector insurance companies and the Insurance Sector in general, apart from discussingkey policy and regulatory priorities/issues pertaining to the sector.

Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance along with IRDA of India jointly reviewed the performance of the public sector insurance companies and the Insurance Sector in general, apart from discussingkey policy and regulatory priorities/issues pertaining to the sector. The Meeting was chaired by Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary (Financial Services) and Sh. T. S. Vijayan, Chairman (IRDAI) and was attended by senior executives of DFS, IRDAI, LIC, GIC, AICIL and public sector general insurance companies in Hyderabad at SBI Staff College. The focus of the meeting was to review the performance of public sector insurance companies and addressing issues affecting their performance. Secretary (FS) highlighted that the objective of the review meeting was to find solutions to problems and this was the first step towards invigorating the sector and in turn catalyzing its transformation towards greater achievement. It was noted that the Sector had come a long way since its opening up in 1999/2000 and the public sector insurance companies had played a notable role and faced up to competition admirably.

Based on the deliberations certain key parametersto be monitored and achieved for achieving the government’s priority of financial inclusion by way of increasing insurance penetration were identified. It was felt that there was a need to focus on and increase the number of lives insured as a proportion of insurable population. Further the need to improve the underwriting performance of the public sector non-life insurers was also stressed.The need for transparency and the role of information technology towards improving customer service was also stressed. Consumer welfare issues in the sector such as addressing misselling, delay in claim settlement are the other important matters which were reviewed. The key priorities for the future along with a road map for a better overall performance of the sector and the public sector insurance companies were also discussed. As part of the overall financial inclusion drive, micro insurance services, both in life and non-life sector, which could be provided as part of the PMJDY were also discussed. The insurance companies were asked to devise simple low cost insurance products in order to move in the direction in which the country was progressing by catering to the needs of the common man, and use the PMJDY extension network to distribute their products.

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT