Underlining the robust growth potential for the general insurance industry, industry experts estimate premium business for the industry would cross Rs 1.2 lakh crore in fiscal 2016-17 from around Rs 96,394 crore in the last fiscal.
The general insurance industry has been growing at around 16 per cent every year since 2006-2007, but with higher penetration the industry is expected to quadruple in size over the next 10 years, industry players said.
They discussed current trends, challenges faced in insurance claims, client’s experience from the claims perspective and innovations in claims management at the ‘Management of Insurance Claims – Way Forward’, a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers Of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Gujarat State Council, in partnership with Anar Insurance Brokers Ltd.
According to experts, during the first six months of fiscal 2016-17, the general insurance industry has grown by more than 28 per cent.
Rajiv Vastupal, Chairman, FICCI Gujarat State Council said, "Penetration of general insurance in India is very low at 0.70 per cent and Gujarat, in spite of being highly industrialised, is no different at just 0.71 per cent. The low penetration is a major reason for the losses of the industry players."
"The insurance industry will have to become more customer-centric in product development, policy issuance as well as claims settlement to be prepared for the challenges and opportunities in the coming time," he added.
Gujarat accounted for over 20 lakh claims in fiscal 2015-16, 7 per cent of the total 2.70 crore claims in India.
Management of claims and customer satisfaction are both important aspects for any insurance company. Unfortunately, the general insurance industry has made pure underwriting losses since 2007, which has increased in recent years due to the deteriorating claims ratio in medical insurance.
India currently accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of the world’s total insurance premium and about 2 per cent of the world’s life insurance premium despite being the second most populous nation.
The country is the fifteenth largest insurance market in the world in terms of premium volume, and has the potential to grow exponentially in the coming years.