Canara HSBC OBC Life eyes 99% claim settlement ratio for individual policies this fiscal: CEO Anuj Mathur

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Limited (CanaraHSBCOBCLife) is eyeing claim settlement ratio of 99 per cent on individual policies this fiscal, a top official said.

This will be higher than the 2018-19 level of 98.12 per cent, which was more than four percentage point jump to claim settlement ratio of 94 per cent in 2017-18, Anuj Mathur, Managing Director & CEO, told BusinessLine in an interview.

"With this healthy claim settlement ratio of 98.12 per cent, we are now in top quartile. Our overall claim settlement ratio (which includes group insurance) is already 99 per cent. I am very confident this fiscal we will improve to 99 per cent on the individual front too", he said.

Claim settlement ratio is basically the percentage of insurance claims settled by an insurer compared to the total number of claims received. This life insurer, which completed 12 years of existence on Tuesday, has launched a new initiative 'Insta Promise', where the company is committing to the customer that claims will be settled within one day in respect of policies upto ₹1 crore and which have run for at least three years. This initiative is being rolled out from customer centricity perspective, he noted. Mathur also said that the Indian embedded value of the company as on March 31 stood at ₹2,907 crore, up 13 per cent over previous year.

This life insurer has been generating profits for eight years in a row and the profit before tax in 2019-20 stood at ₹105 crore. He ruled out any capital raising this fiscal, stating that company had comfortable position on this front. There is also no immediate plan of any listing of the company even as he noted that this was a shareholders call. From April 1, Punjab National Bank --post its amalgamation with Oriental Bank of Commerce-- took 23 per cent stake (previously held with Oriental Bank of Commerce) in CanaraHSBCOBCLife. While Canara Bank holds 51 per cent stake, HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings Ltd has 26 per cent stake in this life insurer.

For 2019-20, the company 's gross written premium increased 13 per cent to ₹3,943 crore (₹3,491 crore). Individual New business premium income on weighted premium income grew seven per cent at ₹975 crore (₹915 crore).

Mathur said that there has been strong demand for guarantee products during the current Covid-19 period and the company plans to roll out new products in this space during the current fiscal. This life insurer plans to continue focus on leveraging its bancassurance channel while expanding its digital channel penetration, he said. "Our digital channel grew 100 per cent during April-May this year during the Covid-19 induced lockdown”, he added.

Source: The Hindu Business Line