Time is right to be in India, says Chubb executive

Hyderabad: US-based property and casualty insurance company Chubb is investing in India to set-up a business services centre in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Without revealing any investment details, Chubb executive said the company is going to employ talents that are largely sourced locally and will have facilities in two cities that will work in close proximity.

At present, the company has directly hired around 50 full-time employees and this number may go up further. "Hyderabad and Bangalore have access to efficient technology and systems. So, we have decided to be there," said Chubb's Chief Risk Officer, Sean Ringsted. He added that these jobs will be high impact jobs. The company will hire technical professionals providing support in areas such as intelligent process automation, digital technology, data analytics and others such as catastrophe modeling and risk management.

These two facilities in India will supplement Chubb Digital Centres of Excellence for Business and Innovation already operating in locations such as Jersey City, N.J., Miami, Fla., and Singapore. When asked if this expansion in India has anything to do with the strained US-China relations, Shekar Pannala, Chief Technology Officer and Global Digital CIO, Chubb said, "This has nothing to do with that. We saw this as a right time to set-up centre in India and we did that."

In addition to the launch of the new centre, the insurer also announced it will be working with T-Hub, a one-of-its-kind public/private partnership involving the government of Telangana, three of India's premier academic institutes and key private sector leaders to foster innovation and nurture start ups. Ringsted said, "We will be looking forward to working with Indian start-ups."

When quizzed if Chubb plans to introduce the Indian market with any product offering, Ringsted stressed that he does not want to speculate. At the announcement of the launch of the business service centre, Jayesh Ranjan, the Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) departments of the Telangana government, said, "Hyderabad has become an important centre for the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance)."

Taking pride in the fact that Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India is headquartered in Hyderabad, Rajan said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had recently given permission to the insurance regulator to start regulatory sandbox that will help insurance tech and fintech players. He added that T-Hub has been recognised national for their efforts. Ranjan stated that Chubb might help Indian insurers to learn global best practises.

Responding to reporters on the impact of economic slowdown in insurance segment, Ringsted said, "There will be some marginal impact as people continue to buy insurance."

Source: The Free Press Journal