Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s (IRDAI) Chairman, Dr. Subhash Khuntia, has advised Indian insurers to concentrate on risk prevention and continuous engagement with policyholders.
Focusing on these aspects will enable policyholders to benefit not only through claim settlement, but also from prevention of loss.
Khuntia believes that this will generate greater trust between the insurer and the policyholder and both would stand to benefit long term.
He also explained that it’s a necessity for stakeholders to work together in order to create awareness about need for protection and for higher level of customer engagement throughout the insurance life cycle for enhanced customer satisfaction.
Emerging risks arising out of global climate change and cyber-risks will also have to be addressed, along with the use of new distribution channels and omni-channels.
Insurers need to be agile to respond to the fast-changing needs of the customers, the regulatory sandbox provides an opportunity to pilot such innovative products and services.
With the Indian insurance sector going through a transformation, there are three main factors in the play, including the demography of the country with predominant young population, along with the potential of high economic growth, and relatively low level of insurance penetration that provides huge opportunity for growth.
Khuntia is optimistic that Indian capability in IT and IT-enabled services sector will further accentuate the potential growth of Indian insurance sector.
He also noted that insurance inclusiveness is another area that the industry needs to focus on in order to cater to rural population, farmers, women, MSME, the poor and the marginalised.
He added that insurers need to develop cost effective micro insurance models for the same.
