Insurance firms advised to boost profits, expedite redress of customer grievances

New Delhi, Sep 2 (AHN) Public sector general insurance companies were advised to strengthen their focus on profitable lines of business and adopt suitable measures to bring down the incurred claim ratio (ICR) at a high-level performance review on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Sanjay Lohiya.

The DFS Secretary urged the government-owned insurance firms -- National Insurance, United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance and Agriculture Insurance -- to make greater use of technology and accelerate digitalisation, while optimising expenditure on information technology and other digital initiatives. He also advised them to ensure customer grievances are redressed expeditiously while adequate emphasis is given to the quality of such redressals, according to an official statement issued after the meeting.

The financial and business performance of the public sector general insurance companies was reviewed for FY 2025–26, covering underwriting performance across all lines of business, key performance indicators, digital initiatives and other operational issues.

The Secretary further emphasised the need to improve communication, publicity and customer outreach, including through social media and other platforms, to enhance awareness about various insurance products and the outreach of the companies in underserved segments and areas.

Besides, he advised the government-owned firms to improve insurance penetration and density while reducing protection gaps. He further emphasised the need to strengthen performance monitoring through a robust and standardised KPI framework across the insurance companies. He advised that the KPIs should enable consistent and comparable assessment of financial as well as non-financial performance across companies and should be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

The meeting was attended by National Insurance Company Ltd CMD Rajeshwari Singh Muni, United India Insurance Company Ltd CMD Bhupesh S. Rahul, The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd CMD Sanjay Joshi, and Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd CMD Lavanya R. Mundayur.

Besides, senior officials of the Department of Financial Services, including Additional Secretary Debasish Prusty, participated in the discussions.