There is also a market belief, engendered by almost all the new Indian promoters who have sought foreign insurers as partners, that the Indian market fundamentally lacks technical, underwriting, actuarial expertise in addition to product innovation and entrepreneurship to be even a good domestic player. If this belief is accepted as true, then all insurers need to focus on supplementing their knowledge of risk exposure evaluation, risk management capabilities and loss prevention skills. Insurers seem to be oblivious to the goal of becoming tech-savvy players to build value-propositions to be sold than buying business on cost considerations.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has released in its monthly IRDA Journal of September 2007, the portfolio-wise premium development for the first quarter of the current fiscal 2007-08. The data provides interesting information for one to make an analysis of the issues thrown up—post-detariffing—about the development of each business segment; and how the detariffing of rates in fire, engineering and motor Own Damage (OD) segments has impacted on the premium trends of the market in the current fiscal.
The market has recorded a growth rate of only 12% for the first quarter of 2007-08. The business has not grown fast enough, as it did in the last fiscal by over 22%. This perhaps is due to the intensified competitive pressures that have driven down the premium rates, mostly for the big-ticket corporate customers.
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