Downturn: Unemployment insurance?

Private General Insurer, Bharti AXA General Insurance, is likely to come up with a ‘unemployment insurance’ product in the current fiscal as the domestic economy witnesses a downturn, a top company official said.

“Presently, we have applied for getting approval for an ‘unemployment insurance’ product from the regulator. If we get the necessary approval, we will launch the product this fiscal,” chief executive officer of Bharti AXA General Insurance, Amaranath Ananthanarayanan, said.

Earlier, another general insurance player, ICICI Lombard had come up with such a product in 2009.

Referring to product specifics, he said that the product would cover general credit risk of a person.

“It will be an umbrella product, which will cover general credit risk of a person during a loss of job. For example, payment of equated monthly installments of the person insured for some months.” he said.

Unemployment insurance is a new product in the general insurance category in the country, though it is a very popular product in the western world.

According to experts, as the country becomes more economically integrated with rest of the world and faces cyclical downturn in its economy, the demand for these kind of  products will be higher in the coming times.

Referring to overall product launch, Ananthanarayanan said there are 5-6 products which are pending for approval from the regulator and will be launched after getting its approval.

Bharti AXA General Insurance is the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA group in which 74 percent stake is being held by Bharti group.

French based AXA group is a global player in insurance and asset management, had a revenue of 91 billion euros in 2010.

 

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/downturn-unemployment-insurance/987782/0