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Life insurers in India reported growth of 22.6% in total first-year premium collection to INR1,387 billion (US$21 billion) for the year ended March 2016 as compared to the previous financial year, according to IRDAI data.

Individual non-single premium collection increased by 8.6% for FY2015-16 to INR425 billion, reported Business Today citing the data. State-owned LIC continues to be the leader with a market share of 77%. LIC issued more than 20 million new policies as against 6.2 million policies issued by private-sector insurers for FY2015-16. Its first-year life business grew by 24.7% as against 17.6% for private insurers for the year.

LIC’s total first-year premiums for FY2015-16 stood at INR976.74 billion, including INR201 billion from non-single premium policies. SBI Life, HDFC Life and ICICI Pru Life remained market leaders among the 23 private-sector players with shares of 4.7%, 4.3% and 2.1% in total first-year business.

The general insurance industry has reported premium revenue of INR964 billion (US$14.5 billion), an increase of 14% for the financial year ended 31 March 2016, driven by motor and health insurance segments which are traditionally the largest segments of the industry. .

Data from the General Insurance Council shows that the four government-run general insurers reported premium income of INR477 billion or 49.5% of the total premiums posted by the non-life market. The 18 private-sector insurers reported INR397 billion of premiums, while two specialised operators – Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) and Agricultural Insurance Company – netted INR48.3 billion and the five standalone health insurers reported INR41.5 billion.

“We have achieved total premium of INR964 billion in FY16, falling short of our ambitious target of INR1 trillion by a small margin,” General Insurance Council General Secretary R Chandrasekaran said. However, he said that after taking into account inward reinsurance business, the industry would have exceeded the INR1-trillion mark in terms of written premiums.

With diabetes affecting over 100 million or nearly 8% of the Indian population, Mumbai and the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) lead in the number of diabetes-related health insurance claims in the country, according to a survey. .

Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Vadodara and Madurai constituted the remaining top 10 cities in terms of diabetes-related claims. These top 10 cities accounted for 62% of total diabetes-related health insurance claims, reported The Economic Times citing data from private-sector insurers. One reason is that the majority of these cities also rank among India’s most populous metropolises. Data from the insurers highlight several diabetes-related trends, particularly in those aged below 25. A report by ICICI Lombard shows that while most of the diabetes-related health insurance claims were previously made by people over the age of 60 years, over the last few years, youths under the age of 25 have also become claimants to such health cover.

Mr Ashish Mehrotra, Managing Director and CEO of Max Bupa Health Insurance, said: “The more serious concern of diabetes is among the below-25 age group, in which we have noticed a 22% increase in claims.” This increase was noted over the last five years. Max Bupa also said that while an average diabetes-related claim it handled amounted to INR53,739 (US$809) in 2014, last year the figure reached INR60,838. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance said it observed a 12.5% rise in the number of claims related to diabetes, with the highest claims being reported from those aged 56-65 years (30%) and 46-55 years (27%). The company also saw 5% of the overall diabetes-related claims coming from those aged below 25. In addition, there has been a 25% rise in the number of diabetes-related claims from the 25-35 age group and a 12% rise in claims from those aged 35-45.

The insurer of the Vivekanda Road flyover in Kolkata that collapsed last Month may not foot the bill for reconstruction if it is found that raw materials of inferior quality were used or there was gross negligence on the part of the contractor. The sum insured with the government-owned United India Insurance under a Contractor All Risk policy is INR1,646.4 million (US$24.7 million). The completion of the construction was already delayed by five years at the time of the crash.

An official of United India Insurance told Times of India that the company’s survey team had already visited the crash site twice but it would take some time to complete the investigation and assess the loss. He also indicated that the company is likely to seek technical help from institutions like IIT-Kharagpur or Jadavpur University, which has expertise in structural engineering. At least 26 people were killed and around 100 injured after about 150 metres of the 2.2 km-long Vivekananda Road flyover collapsed. A Contractor All Risk policy – mandatory for any flyover under construction – was taken out in 2009 by IVRCL which was awarded the flyover construction contract. According to the insurance official, the sum insured for the policy is INR1,646.4 million and the policy expires in November 2016. The initial construction cost for the flyover was INR1,640 million when IVRCL started work in 2009. The policy also has a third-party cover of INR250 million.

Elaborating on exclusions contained in the policy, the United India official added that there are three major exclusions in the Contractor All Risk policy. Insurance is not payable if there is any design defect; if it is found that there is a gross negligence on the part of the contractor and if inferior raw materials are used. “If the investigation reveals that the cement was not up to the mark, we shall not pay the amount for the damage because then it can no longer be called an accident. Then only third-party will be payable, and that too subject to a court award,” the official added. Questions have been raised about the strength of steel used in the pier and the inadequacy of joints in the construction. An inquiry has already been ordered by the West Bengal government to find out the causes of the collapse.

The project started in 2009 with a completion period of about two years. But after 65 months, only two-third of the total 2.2-km length of the flyover was completed, with several revisions of project completion time. The delay appears to be due to changes in the alignment of the bridge’s superstructure and underground utility services, according to a report in The Economic Times. The contractor was later asked to finish the remaining 24% of the project within only seven months.

The insurance regulator IRDAI has received applications from over 40 banks to sell the insurance policies of multiple insurers under new bancassurance rules that took effect from 1 April.

IRDAI Member-Life, Mr Nilesh Sathe, said that the banks include several which have their own insurance subsidiaries, reported Press Trust of India. There had been speculation previously whether banks with insurance subsidiaries would be interested to work with multiple insurers simultaneously, because they might not be keen to sell the products of competing insurers or because of exclusive distribution conditions. Last September, IRDAI announced that it would allow banks to tie up with multiple insurers under an open architecture. Under the new rules, banks can sell policies of up to three insurers in each of the segments— health, life and general. The previous rule allowed banks to form bancassurance arrangements with only one life, one non-life and one standalone health insurer.

Over 60 financial entities court India Post

Meanwhile, several insurance companies and top global financial firms Barclays, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Western Union, Visa and domestic giants State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are among over 60 companies that are in the queue to work with the payments bank arm of India Post. Insurers wooing India Post include HDFC Life, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz, Kotak Life Insurance, Royal Sundaram and PNB Metlife, reported the Times of India. The financial institutions are attracted by the postal network of about 150,000 post offices across the country, including 130,000 in rural areas.

A large-scale modernisation drive has been taking place across these offices, including computerisation and the gradual rollout of banking solutions and ATMs. Telecom and IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also in charge of the Department of Posts, said: “With India Post having got a payments bank licence, there is a scramble to forge partnerships and alliances.” India Posts received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India on 7 September last year for a payments bank to be set up within 18 months. The payments bank is likely to become operational by March 2017, said Mr Prasad.

New India Assurance, the country’s largest general insurer, has confirmed that it is all set to be publicly listed in the next fiscal year which starts on 1 April, according to a top company official.

“We are in the early stages of formalities for listing. The valuation process is yet to start. We expect it to go through quickly once the process starts,” the Hindu Business Line reported, citing Mr G Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. Mumbai-headquartered New India Assurance is expected to be the first among the country’s four state-owned general insurance companies to get listed. The other three are National Insurance Company, The Oriental Insurance Company, and United India Insurance.

In his Budget speech delivered on 29 February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the central government plans to list all four companies to ensure higher transparency and accountability. Mr Srinivasan had said after the Budget announcement that the company was ready for disinvestment as its financials were healthy with its market share expanding in both domestic and international markets. Although the insurance law, amended last year, allows the four companies to raise capital subject to the government equity “not being less than 51% at any time”, the local media cited Finance Ministry officials as having said that the government plans to offload 10% of its stake in the four companies. No insurance company is currently listed on the Indian stock market.

The cost of insuring property against natural catastrophes is set to rise from the financial year beginning on 1 April 2016 with claims from last year’s Chennai floods crossing INR45 billion (US$673 million)

“In recent years, India has seen a catastrophic event every year on a regular basis. So the pricing of catastrophic events would move up,” said Mr Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, told reported the Times of India.In 2013, there were severe floods in Uttarakhand in northern India, followed by Cyclone Hudhud in 2014. The Chennai floods in 2015 hit in the last two months of the year. Total claims from natural catastrophes in the last three years have crossed INR100 billion.

The bulk of the Chennai flood claims will be recovered from reinsurance treaties. The net impact on the balance sheet of Indian insurers would be around INR7 billion, officials said. The overall impact on property insurance rates as a result of the proposed increase in premiums for NAT Cat cover would be marginal because catastrophic risks are generally an add-on cover in fire insurance. The add-ons are the “storm, tempest, flood and inundation” cover and a separate earthquake cover.

Representatives of the non-life industry met recently under the aegis of the General Insurance Council to take stock of industry losses and compute an increase in rates. However, Mr R Chandrasekaran, Secretary General, General Insurance Council, clarified: “The Council only provides a platform for technical collaboration and information exchange. Each company then takes an incremental call on pricing based on their individual experience.”

One or two government-owned non-life insurance companies may launch an initial public offering in the 12 months beginning on 1 April 2016, with the Department of Financial Services now working on the valuation of the country’s four state-run general insurers.

The government may sell a 10% stake in the insurance companies, with the IPO of New India Assurance likely to be the first on the block, sources familiar with the matter told The Economic Times. Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance are the three other government-owned general insurance companies. A public listing of the companies is a way to ensure higher transparency and accountability. To promote this objective, the general insurance companies owned by the government will be listed on the stock exchanges, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech on 29 February.

Before the state-owned insurers are listed, they would have to clean up their books and operations, reported Business Standard citing industry officials. This would involve bringing down losses across segments like motor third-party, group health, fire and engineering among others. Further, underwriting profitability is essential to attract the desired valuations. No insurance company is currently listed on the Indian stock market.

Investigators suspect unknown hackers managed to install malware in the Bangladesh central bank’s computer systems and watched, probably for weeks, how to go about withdrawing money from its U.S. account, two bank officials briefed on the matter said on Friday.

More than a month after hackers breached Bangladesh Bank’s systems and attempted to steal nearly $1 billion from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, cyber security experts are trying to find out how the hackers got in. FireEye Inc.’s Mandiant forensics division is helping investigate the cyber heist, which netted hackers more than $80 million before it was uncovered. Investigators now suspect that malware that allowed hackers to learn how to withdraw the money could have been installed several weeks before the incident, which took place between Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, the officials said. Investigators suspect the attack was sophisticated, describing the use of a “zero day” and referring to an “advanced persistent threat,” the officials said. A zero day is a vulnerability in software that has yet to be identified or patched. Hackers leverage this hole to plant malware on the target computer. Advanced persistent threat is a long-term attack on a system, where hackers remain inside the target, for months, and sometimes even years.

So far investigators have not found any proof of involvement of the central bank staff in Bangladesh, one of the officials said, but added that the probe was continuing. Unraveling the mystery behind one of the largest cyber heists in history is crucial for security in a connected world. Understanding how it happened could help banks shore up security of their computer systems and payment networks that form the backbone of global commerce. Security experts say the perpetrators had deep knowledge of the Bangladeshi institution’s internal workings, likely gained by spying on bank workers. Bangladesh Bank officials have said hackers appeared to have stolen their credentials for the SWIFT messaging system, which banks around the world use for secure financial communication. The Fed, which provides banking services to some 250 central banks and other institutions, has said its systems were not compromised. The Bangladesh central bank had billions of dollars in its current account, which it used for international settlements, officials have said. The money stolen from the Bangladesh central bank made its way to the other side of the world. Some $80 million are believed to have ended in the Philippines, and further diverted to casinos and then to Hong Kong, according to bank officials. One $20 million transaction was directed to a non-profit organization in Sri Lanka. But the unusually large transaction for the island nation and a misspelling of the NGO’s name raised red flags that helped bring the robbery to light. The transaction was blocked as was another huge payment instruction that was for between $850 million and $870 million.

Around 93% of respondents of a recent survey conducted by ICICI Lombard General Insurance do not own a home insurance policy. This is despite the fact that 62% of those surveyed were aware of the benefits of a home insurance policy, a company statement said.

The survey also revealed that most home owners did not feel the need to get their homes covered and 59% of the respondents said that they would buy a home insurance policy if the premiums were lower and the claims process was made easier. The survey was conducted across a user base of 2,000, half of whom were in the age group of 36-40 years. 62% of the respondents acquired their homes only in the last three years. “Home insurance, as a segment, is hugely under-penetrated. Although a home insurance policy can help ease the financial burden that arises out of severe disasters such as floods, storms, earthquakes and riots,” ICICI Lombard chief Underwriting and Claims Sanjay Datta said.

A separate survey conducted on 1,200 people by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance last May, in metropolises like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and cities like Jaipur, Surat, Nagpur, Jalandhar and Chandigarh, found that the demand for home insurance was low because people found the products and clauses complicated and difficult to understand. One reason for the complex insurance policy is that many insurers add on features and caveats to a standard fire insurance policy to make a packaged home insurance policy.