Optima Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.

The Insurance regulator of India, IRDAI is in the process of implementing its vision of “Insurance for all by 2047” by rolling out lead-insurer system and promote accessible and affordable insurance. Zuno General Insurance (formerly Edelweiss General) is one of the insurance companies being appointed under the system.

Zuno has got a mandate from IRDAI to be the lead insurer in the state of Goa and enhance insurance reach and accessibility, with a focus on life and health protection, natural calamities, MSMEs, and employment. Zuno has specific plans for target groups like fishermen, rural and women self-help groups, MSMEs, and uninsured vehicle owners.

As per Zuno, Goa’s literacy and poverty rate indicates potential for increased insurance awareness, with Motor insurance dominating the market, followed by fire, property, and marine cargo insurance.

Prominent lead insurers include Universal Sompo General Insurance, Star Health and Allied Insurance, and Aegon Life Insurance, for the state of Andhra Pradesh. SBI General Insurance is the designated lead insurer for Meghalaya, a state in northeastern India.

Lead-insurer system for a state is a novel concept introduced by IRDAI to increase insurance penetration and drive financial inclusion. Its implementation is monitored by a coordination committee, including the insurers, state government and IRDAI representatives.

To address the grievances related to health insurance in India and further strengthen the confidence of consumers, participants of a national health insurance summit have demanded to establish an independent high-powered health insurance grievance redress tribunal.

The two-day event, “National Health Insurance Summit – 2023,” was planned together by the Hospital Board of India, General Insurance Council, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Tamil Nadu State Branch (TNSB), insurance companies, 3rd party administrators, IMA’s Nursing Home Board and Insurance Committee of Tamil Nadu, and IMA Coimbatore.
The sole purpose of this tribunal should be to address grievances and disputes in a fair and transparent manner, delivering fast and effective resolution for health insurance providers to provide much needed medical care to the patients.

The event called for empanelling all eligible hospitals and developing a hassle free single window system, for methodical costing of healthcare services, and much improved collaboration between hospitals and insurance companies.

It also emphasized on the involvement of IMA and doctors’ associations in policy-making bodies of the health insurance industry and the government.

Indian Insurance Regulator is planning to launch a bundled product that will cover life, health, casualty, and property insurance in a single policy at a reasonable price. This product is being developed along with the General Insurance Council and Life Insurance Council of India.

The product design focus is to develop a parametric trigger, so that there is no need for a surveyor or assessor for loss assessment. If loss occurs or happens, the defined benefit should immediately go to the bank account of the policyholder.

The Bima ‘Trinity’ will include a digital platform, Bima Sugam; a comprehensive cover for the rural population, Bima Vistaar; and a women-centric distribution channel to reach untapped/ rural areas, Bima Vahak with a benefit-based parametric structure.

It was emphasized that Bima Sugam will be the protocol or the platform and Bima Vistar is a product to make insurance accessible to the common man. This bundled product of life, health, casualty, and property will bring out the synergy benefits of Insurance.

The Indian surety insurance market is set to witness a higher growth path as India’s Insurance regulator, IRDAI relaxes norms for surety bonds to increase the availability of such products.

IRDAI has reduced the solvency requirements applicable for surety insurance contracts from 1.875 times to 1.5 times now as per the changes made to the Surety Insurance Contracts guidelines with effect from 15th May 2023. Significantly, the exposure ceiling of 30% has been removed as applicable to each contract underwritten by an insurer.

These changes are in addition to the removal of the cap on premiums underwritten in a financial year for surety insurance business by mono-line insurers.

The reforms in surety Insurance bonds will increase contractors’ liquidity and give an impetus to the infrastructure sector, in particular.

The General Insurance Council of India is planning to partner with hospitals for facilitating cashless claims settlement for non-life insurance companies. This platform will bring ease of doing business for hospitals to tie up with insurers and put a halt to the leakages in the healthcare sector by bringing transparency.

This platform will address long standing demand of the healthcare industry, having to deal with 30 insurance companies on a standalone basis. This platform is designed to help detect frauds, and eliminate waste and abuse, bringing down the cost for non-life insurance companies.
The objective of this platform is to increase the share of cashless claims to about 100% from 55% currently, contributing to the growth of health insurance industry in India. This platform will also help to identify the errant hospitals and initiate corrective actions.

Later this year, India is planning to host its first state-sponsored global insurance summit. The summit intends to turn the global spotlight on Indian insurers and highlight the challenges of industry and attract business investments. This comes in the backdrop of India’s insurance regulator recently launching ‘Insurance for all by 2047’ mission and revealing many measures to increase growth in the sector. By 2027, the Indian insurance market is expected to touch US $ 200 billion. The Indian insurance market is emerging as a bright spot in midst of the developed world facing headwinds on economic front.

This conference is slated to be the world’s biggest, by bringing together global heads and top executives from large insurers, reinsurers, broking agencies, actuarial organizations and policymakers on single platform. This event is likely to leverage India’s G-20 presidency and may be planned around September, however, official confirmation is still awaited. This will be an excellent opportunity for India’s insurance sector to seek investments in rapidly growing market with huge potential to increase insurance penetration. During FY21, India’s insurance penetration was 4.2%, with life insurance penetration at 3.2% and non-life insurance penetration at 1.0%.

India’s four public-sector general insurers are reviewing a proposal recommended by the global professional services firm EY, to deploy their 50% of the staff from every Indian office in marketing.

This proposal, if accepted, could bring about a big change in the Indian Insurance market, with entry of nearly 20,000 employees of these four general insurance companies for Insurance marketing. There are about 40,000 employees all across India, spread over 8,000 offices of National Insurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance, and The New India Assurance.

EY has been appointed by these four government-owned non-life insurers to review and recommend restructuring their operations.