Insurance company presents its post-quake evaluation

muskan

June 15, 2015, 6:55 a.m.

Kathmandu, June-15 The insurance sector regulatory authority said that the performance of insurance company cannot be considered satisfactory as of only just 1.5 per cent of the total claims till the end of last month.

Till last Friday, a total of 16 operational non-life insurers had settled 1,605 of the 14,458 claims, according to the Insurance Board. Claims amounting to Rs 13.84 billion have been filed so far of which claims worth only Rs 286.68 million have been settled.

The highest number of claims was received by Sagarmatha Insurance (2,234), followed by Siddhartha Insurance (1,464) and Shikhar Insurance (1,344).

According to the IB, there are 17 non-life insurance companies operating in the country. They have a total paid-up capital and reserve amount of Rs9 billion. “Despite the small paid-up capital and reserve, the insurance companies have been able to pay out compensation due to the backing of their reinsurers,” said KC.

Non-life insurers have claimed that delay in report submission by surveyors is hindering the claim settlement process. However, surveyors have said that they have submitted a significant number of reports till last Friday. Due to lack of licensed surveyors in the country, each of the 144 surveyors involved has been conducting more than 50 surveys.

Earlier, IB officials had estimated the total earthquake-related losses of non-life insurers to stand at around Rs 20 billion. Of this amount, losses of Rs 5 billion to Rs 6 billion may have to be borne by the companies themselves and the rest by reinsurance companies located abroad, according to IB officials.

Insurance companies here retain only a small portion of risk with them and transfer most of the risk to reinsurers abroad.

Meanwhile, claim settlement of damages caused by the earthquake by life insurance companies is better as compared to non-life insurers. A total of 9 life insurers have so far settled 217 of the 292 claims received so far.