Underwriting losses of non-life insurers surge 68%

The underwriting losses of the non-life insurance companies increased 68 per cent to Rs 9,969 crore in 2010-11 compared with Rs 5,944 crore in the year-ago period.
 
"The increase in underwriting losses was observed in both public and private sector non-life insurers, impacted by the provisioning requirements in the third party liability segment," the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority said in the annual report 2010-11 released on Wednesday.
 
The loss was also driven by a sharp increase in the net incurred claims at Rs 29,536 crore (Rs 22,274 crore).
 
The public sector insurers reported slightly lesser growth in the incurred claims than the private sector players.
 
The incurred claim ratio of the non-life insurance sector stood at 93.37 per cent in the period under review compared with 85.5 per cent in the year-ago period.
 
Among the various segments, motor insurance and health insurance had high claim ratio at 103 per cent. The net loss of non-life insurance sector was at Rs 1,019 crore. In the year-ago period, there was a profit of Rs 1,204 crore.
 
Among the public sector companies, except New India, all other companies reported profits.
 
However, there was significant decline in the quantum of profits.
 
In the private sector, out of fifteen players, only two companies reported profits while the remaining thirteen including Reliance, HDFC Ergo, Future Generali, Universal Sompo, Bharti AXA, Raheja QBE, ICICI Lombard, Royal Sundaram, Tata AIG and SBI General reported losses.
 
Out of all players, only United India and ICICI Lombard paid dividends of Rs 30 crore and Rs 57 crore respectively.
 
The reach of non-life insurers, in terms of their offices, had gone up at 6,660 offices (6,417).