We are hoping to have an exposure of over $300 million over the next two years. We would also evaluate opportunities to invest in other asset classes including equity and structured products.
After a lacklustre start, the New Pension Scheme, a safety net thrown open to all citizens of the country in May this year, is slowly picking up with as many as 843 customers joining it in the first two and a half months.
After a slump in sales in January, life insurance companies saw 36 per cent rise in new premium income during February.
One year after the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's (Irda) allowed insurance companies to invest in venture capital (VC) funds, no insurer has shown interest in funding VCs.
The government has asked the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority to open the retirement scheme--which has so far been confined to central government employees--to the self-employed and those in the unorganised sector.
LIC's product will be a hospital cash product (that is for major listed surgeries and procedures, LIC will pay the insured a predetermined lump sum amount, depending on his premium payment). LIC's product will also be a long-term product of over 10 years. For claim payouts, the public sector behemoth has tied by with Axis Bank, Syndicate Bank and Bank of America.
Buying a cover at a late age is expensive; the benefits, too, are limited.
The Left parties' demands of 100 per cent funds being invested in government securities, an unrealistic guaranteed return, deployment of public sector employees as fund managers, refusal to shift to a defined contribution system and of course the standard opposition to FDI of 26 per cent do not offer any constructive solution.
Such products in insurance parlance are called acturial-funded products. The ban would require Aviva Life Insurance to withdraw all its 14 ULIP products, while Bajaj Allianz one of its ULIPs called Capital Unit Gain.
Insurance claims arising out of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 are estimated to wipe out about Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) from the corpus set up by general insurers to fund such losses.
The ICICI board is looking to the retired petroleum secretary to provide 'maturity and sagacity'.
Faced with a deadlock over the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill due to stiff opposition from the Left parties, the government is contemplating to bring a separate Bill on pension funds for private sector employees.
The NSE Nifty ended at 5,132, up eight points. The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,840 stocks traded 1,653 advanced while 1,114 declined.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has constituted a seven-member committee on health insurance for senior citizens.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is considering a proposal to make insurance frauds a parameter for calculating credit scores in an attempt to put a lid on the increase in such activity. The proposal, which is a part of the recommendations made by a working group formed by Irdai and the General Insurance Council, suggests that insurance frauds should feature when the risk profiles of individuals are evaluated and should be used to calculate their credit scores. A poor credit score can deprive a person of financial services such as loans and credit cards, and deter him from indulging in fraud.
According to the IRDA's data in 2007-08, the health insurance segment was estimated to be around Rs 5,152 crore, with only 2 per cent of the total population being covered. Realising the potential and advantages -- the segment has been growing at 37 per cent since 2002 -- both life and non-life insurers are offering health insurance products. Health insurance in 2007-08 accounted for 0.2 per cent of the individual regular premium for life insurance companies in India.
Insurance companies are expected to get greater leeway in investing policyholders' funds with the addition of mortgage-backed securities to the list of approved investments.
LIC and GIC employees will go on strike on Tuesday to lodge their emphatic protest against the 'ill-advised' two Bills the Government of India introduced in Parliament on Monday. The office bearers of Insurance Employees' associations said the increase in FDI limit under external pressure results in increased access to private foreign capital over domestic savings, thereby weakening the public sector LIC of India.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has clarified that only the premium collected for providing health cover in the case of unit-linked health insurance policies will be eligible for tax benefits.
A new kind of pension-cum-savings scheme is on the anvil, which would provide a safety net as well as liquidity to the holder.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is likely to trigger off pension reforms for the unorganized sector in this Budget by exempting tax on a standardized pension policy, which could be sold by insurers at a meager price.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has announced that the government will soon notify an interim investment pattern for pension funds, pending the passage of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill in Parliament.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority on Wednesday announced that it would lift pricing controls on motor insurance, along with other lines of business currently under tariff, with effect from January 1, 2007.
Gross enrolments of new subscribers with ESIC were 1.49 crore during the entire financial year 2018-19, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said in a report.
In a huge relief for senior citizens, the entry age for health insurance has been extended to 65 years. But, will it come at a cost?
The old ULIP lacked both and individuals did not have an inkling about either even after taking the ULIP.
Telecom service providers (TSPs) have begun to monitor and prevent spam calls since May 1, with the help of an artificial intelligence and machine language-based system acting on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) latest directive on the matter, its officials told Business Standard. Touted as the first big technological measure against the growing menace of unsolicited commercial communications, all TSPs have confirmed to Trai that they have rolled out the AI/ML tool. The filter system works on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform used by TSPs, and is set to go for incremental updates, rules for which will soon be released, they added.
The finance ministry's proposal to increase equity exposure of non-government provident funds and superannuation funds from 5 per cent to 10 per cent may benefit only the high income group category and subscribers of the New Pension Scheme.
Fund managers queued up to grab a pie of the new pension scheme that opens for subscription on May 1. But even before the scheme is launched, they are complaining of it being a loss-making business with the investment management fee fixed at 0.009 per cent.
They want to take advantage of the few days remaining before the IRDA's new guidelines on Ulips come into force. What has also added to the rush is the fall in the sale of big-ticket, single-premium covers and Ulips in the current financial year as individuals are holding on to big-ticket purchases, especially where the returns are linked to the equity markets. For insurers, big-ticket policies mean a lower lapse rate and it translates into higher commission for agents.
With losses mounting in health insurance portfolio due to higher claims, Oriental Insurance Company is in the process of hiking premium rates for its Individual Mediclaim Policy by upto 30 per cent for people in the higher age group.
The department of post is in the process of floating a separate company to bring its Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance products under the ambit of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, an official said on Saturday.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has sought income tax exemption for the New Pension Scheme at par with other schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF).
The incentive of the insurance advisor is definitely not in favour of the individual wanting an insurance policy.
A committee headed by Irda's member actuary R Kannan has suggested a grace period of 15 days for policyholders who pay premium on a monthly basis, while a 30 days grace period will be available to those who pay their premium annually, half-yearly or quarterly.
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