Underwriting losses fall, profits jump for general insurers

Despite paying a huge sum as claims and facing other challenges and constraints triggered by the Covid pandemic throughout the fiscal, the general insurance industry has seen its net profit rise almost 300 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3,868 crore and underwriting losses decline in FY21.

Two dozen general insurance players including four public sector companies, five stand-alone health players and two specialised players – Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) – had made losses of Rs 1,403 crore in FY20, as per an analysis based on data from General Insurance Council. The industry’s total underwriting losses fell 17.24 per cent to Rs 19,416 crore in the period.

While the industry saw massive disruption due to the sudden onset of Covid-19 in terms of key parameters like gross premium, policies issued, underwriting losses/profit, combined ratio, gross claims, number of employees, FDI and investment in infrastructure and social sectors since March 2020, it witnessed significant improvement in FY21.