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Haryana Govt. Barred ICICI Prudential For 3 Years

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The Haryana government has barred ICICI Prudential Life Insurance for three years from doing any further business with it or any of its departments for intentionally delaying the process of distribution of annuity to land owners and failure to carry out commitments.

The state’s finance department in a statement said that ICICI Prudential Life needed to be blacklisted. However, the noticee can opt to pay compounding fee in lieu of entire or a part of the black listing period within one month from the date of this order.

This is by paying penal interest at a rate of one per cent for every six months or part there of the blacklisting period proposed to be compounded, by making a request to the government in this regard, the statement said.

Such enhanced rate of interest would be payable on the amount advanced to noticee for the period from date of receipt of advance till the date of repayment of advance and interest at SBI base rate to the department, the statement added.

Necessary orders for allowing compounding of the black listing period will be passed after receipt of the requisite compounding fee, it added.

An expression of interest was issued in February 2011, inviting bids from insurance companies and banks for the purpose of providing services for disbursement of annuity to the land owners under the R and R policy of the state government.

The bid-cum-tender document was submitted by ICICI Prudential on 31 March 2011.

Thereafter, several rounds of discussions were held between the noticee and the state government with respect to various stipulation and condition stated in the draft services level agreement.

This included the obligation of the noticee as the service provider with respect to collection and validation of data of the beneficiaries under the scheme of annuity.

Life Insurers Witnessed 4% Growth in Premium Collection in April-December 2012

Life Insurance

Life insurance companies have witnessed a nominal growth of 4% in first three quarters of financial year 2012-13 on year-on-year basis.

The total premium collection from the individual segment for 24 life insurers stood at Rs 40,688 crores during April-December 2012, compared with Rs 39,131 crores in corresponding period last year.

Public sector insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) witnessed a growth of 11.3% in retail segment with collection of Rs 28,017 crores during April-December 2012, against Rs 25,174 crores in the same period last year.

On the other hand, private sector life insurers witnessed a negative growth of 9.2% in individual segment with premium collection of Rs 12,671 crores  in April-December 2012 period as against Rs 13,957 crores in the same period previous year.

Among private insurers, in the retail segment, ICICI Prudential Life collected highest premium of Rs 2,133 crores during April-December 2012, against Rs 2,009 crores in corresponding period previous year, a growth of 6.2%.

HDFC Standard Life collected premium of Rs 2,015 crores during April-December 2012, compared with Rs 1,820 crores in the same period last year, a growth of 10.7%.

Although SBI Life insurance stood third among private life insurers with a collection of Rs 1,694 crores during April-December 2012, it witnessed a negative growth of 19% over the previous year’s collection of Rs 2,091 crores.

Max Life registered a marginal drop of 1.6% with premium collection from the retail segment of Rs 1,159 crores, against Rs 1,178 crores in corresponding period last year.

In regular premium policies, insurers have registered a growth of 8.2% with collection of Rs 30,170 crores during April-December 2012, compared with Rs 27,893 crores in corresponding period last year.

LIC collected Rs 19,123 crores during April-December 2012, compared with Rs 17,142 crores in the same period last year, a growth of 11.6%.

ICICI Prudential Life insurance collected Rs 2,057 crores during April-December 2012, from regular premium policies against Rs 1,812 crores in corresponding period previous year, a growth of 13.5%.

Total premium collection from single premium policies stood at Rs 10,518 crores during April-December 2012 as against Rs 11,238 crores in corresponding period previous year, a negative growth of 6.4%.

LIC collected single premium of Rs 8,894 crores in April-December 2012 period, against Rs 8,032 crores in the same period last year, a growth of 10.7%.

Private insurers registered a negative growth of 49.3% in single premium with collection of Rs 1,625 crores in April-December 2012 period, compared with Rs 3,206 crores in corresponding period last year.

Life Insurance Persistency Good in First Year, Not in the Long Term

Life Persistency rate

Life insurance companies are witnessing healthy growth in persistency in short period of one year however, that is not the case in long term.

As per data on persistency for the financial year 2011-12, insurers registered an average of 64.4% policies renewed in second year, it was 64.3% in the last year. However, the average persistency ratio for fifth year was 46.5% in FY’12 as against 48% in FY’11.

Persistency ratio indicates the percentage of policies on which the premiums are paid regularly by the policyholders. The 13-month persistency ratio is based on the fact that most renewals become due after one year and an additional 30 days of grace period is given by insurers to pay premium, so effectively the ratio indicates the policies on which premium is paid for the second year.

Policyholders generally withhold premiums in the second year if their financial condition is not good or they are not happy with the product, but if he stops premium payment in sixth year then it is something more severe, as they have continued the policy for the first five years.

Out of six life insurers, ratio for five insurers improved in 13th month, however, only two have shown improvement in 61-month persistency ratio.

The six life insurers that were considered for the analysis are Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), HDFC Standard Life, ICICI Prudential, SBI Life, Reliance Life and Bajaj Allianz Life. These six life insurers had highest number of individual policies in force.

The 13-month persistency ratio of LIC improved to 75% in FY’12 from 70% in FY’11. For HDFC Standard Life it improved to 75.4% in FY’12 from 71.97% in FY’11.  For ICICI Prudential it improved to 77% in FY’12 from 75.8% in FY’11.

SBI Life witnessed a marginal rise in 13-month persistency ratio to 51.4% in FY’12 from 51.2% in FY’11. For Reliance Life it increased to 73.7% in FY’12 from 73.5% in FY’11.

However, Bajaj Allianz Life is the only insurer that witnessed a decline in 13-month persistency ratio to 54.6% in FY’12 as against 56.31% in FY’11.

However, if the analysis is extended for a longer period of five years then we see that only two insurers have seen rise in persistency ratio.

SBI Life’s 61-month persistency ratio increased to 80.3% in FY’12 from 26.3% in FY’11. For ICICI Prudential it increased to 65.3% in FY’12 from 65.2% in FY’11.

Among life insurers that witnessed decline in 61-month persistency ratio, for Bajaj Allianz Life it stood at 43.5% in FY’12 as against 72.6% in FY’11. For LIC it declined to 31% in FY’12 from 39% in FY’11. For Reliance Life it declined to 41.7% in FY’12 as against 49.2% in FY’11. For HDFC Standard Life it was 78.4% in FY’12 as against 84.6% in FY’11.

PFRDA to Give Some Flexibility to Pension Fund Managers

PFRDAPension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is planning to allow some flexibility to pension fund managers in valuing their portfolios to help them to increase valuation and show better returns.

Better returns may encourage more subscribers to join New Pension System (NPS), which has failed to garner substantial interest from unorganized sector that includes people ranging from sidewalk vegetable vendors to those employed as household help and in small business units.

PFRDA may soon give pension fund managers the option of only valuing their equity investments on a mark-to-market (MTM) basis) the practice of valuing investments at their current market price and not the price at which they were bought. Pension fund managers will be allowed to exclude their government bond holdings from this practice.

This will ensure that the valuation of the government securities portfolios does not come down when bond yields increase. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions; prices typically decline when interest rates are firm or are rising.

This move will help to improve the Net Asset Value (NAV) of portfolios managed by pension fund managers.

At present, pension fund managers have to mark their entire portfolio, including equities and government securities on MTM basis.

As government securities are generally long term in nature and held to maturity, PFRDA is looking to give an option to pension fund managers for not making some portions of government securities MTM.

The national pension scheme was initially launched for central government employees in 2008 and later extended to state government employees. From first May 2009, the scheme was extended to the unorganized sector.

The scheme for the unorganized sector offers the investors the option of choosing between three investment options including investments in predominantly equity markets, in only government securities and investments in fixed income instruments. Of around Rs 20,000 crores managed by pension fund managers for all the three put together, more than 95% is in government securities.

At present, there are seven fund managers under NPS including SBI Pension fund, UTI Retirement solutions and ICICI Prudential Pension Fund Management.

When portfolio is in Mark-To-Market, fund managers have to make provisioning in case of a fall in value. It is not done in the profit and loss account but in the NAVs.

Hence, pension fund managers say that there should be some distinction between short-term instruments like mutual funds and long-term investments like pension. In mutual funds lock-in is not for a long time period in contrast, in pension, people invest till they are 60 years of age.

Private Life Insurers Witnessed Fall in Premium Collection by Individual Agents

Life InsurancePrivate life insurance companies have witnessed a fall of 13.7% in first half of financial year 2012-13 in new business premium mainly on account of sharp decline in premium collection from individual agents.

An analysis of five large private life insurers has revealed that they collectively witnessed sharp decline in new business premium collection by individual agents in the April-September 2012 period. Premium collection by these life insurers from individual agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 1,763.47 crores as against Rs 2,229.28 crores in corresponding period last year, a fall of 21%.

As a proportion of total premium collection, individual agents managed 41.4% in April-September 2012 period compared with 45.9% in the same period last year.

The life insurers that were considered for this analysis are ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Standard Life, SBI Life, Bajaj Allianz Life and Reliance Life.

Premium collection by corporate agents has also come down. Premium collection by corporate agents for April-September 2012 period stood at Rs 2,008.68 crores as against Rs 2,219.99 crores in the same period previous year, a decline of 9.5%. However, as a proportion of total premium collection, corporate agents witnessed a growth from 45.7% in April-September 2011 period to 47.2% in April-September 2012 period.

As the industry has shown overall negative growth, distribution channels like individual and corporate agents, has been significantly impacted. Banks and brokers have performed reasonably well.

Reliance Life witnessed the steepest fall of 31.5% in premium collection by individual agents. Reliance Life’s premium collection by individual agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 262.77 crores as against Rs 383.48 crores in corresponding period last year.

SBI Life’s premium collection by individual agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 459 crores compared with Rs 658 crores in the same period last year, a decline of 30.2%.

Bajaj Allianz Life was the only insurer to witness a growth in premium collection by individual agents. Its premium collection by individual agents for April-September 2012 stood at 395 crores as against Rs 380 crores in corresponding period last year, a growth of 4%.

Premium collection of Bajaj Allianz Life by corporate agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 113 crores compared with Rs 248 crores in the same period last year, decline of 54.4%.

Premium collection of SBI Life by corporate agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 317 crores compared with Rs 626 crores in corresponding period last year, a decline of 49.4%.

However, ICICI Prudential Life saw a rise in premium collection by corporate agents. Its premium collection by corporate agents for April-September 2012 stood at Rs 656 crores as against Rs 435.2 crores, a growth of 50.7%.

During April-September 2012, HDFC Standard Life’s premium collection by corporate agents stood at Rs 834 crores as against Rs 808 crores, a growth of 3.2%.

Premium collected by brokers, who are allowed to sell policies of multiple insurers, grew by 6.1%. However, their contribution to total premium remained as low as 6%.

Finance Ministry Summoned Insurers in Service Tax Evasion Probe

Tax EvasionThe finance ministry has issued summons to about dozens of insurance companies seeking documents pertaining to sale of insurance policies and commission paid to their field associates as part of its probe into alleged service tax evasion of over Rs 300 crores by insurers.

Firms like ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard Life, MetLife, Birla Sun Life and Reliance Life among others have been issued summons by Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), an intelligence arm under the Finance ministry.

The notices have been sent under Section 14 of the Central Excise Act, 1944. This section empowers a central excise officer to summon any person whose attendance he considers necessary either to give evidence or to produce a document or any other thing in inquiry being undertaken by the officer.

Preliminary probe so far has found alleged irregularities including evasion of service tax by misrepresenting the information on accounts book and fudging records related to commission paid to field associates, agents and brokers who were selling the insurance policies.

Private Life Insurers Shifting their Focus from Single Premium Policies

life insurancePrivate Insurers have gone slow with their single premium policies during first four months of current financial year but state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) total new business premium increased 23% to Rs 23,858 crores on year-on-year basis riding on group single premium policies.

Top 7-8 private life insurers have brought down their shares in the individual single premium policies while a few like Bajaj Allianz, Max Life and MetLife have maintained their last year’s level.

Group single premium for LIC increased 117% to Rs 11,063 crores in April-July period of 2012 as against Rs 5,085 crores in corresponding period last year. Group single premium for the entire private sector stood at Rs 1,522 crores in first four months of current fiscal.

Most of the private insurers registered negative growth during July 2012 but ICICI Prudential registered growth of 126% in first year premium to Rs 678 crores in July 2012 as against Rs 301 crores in July 2011.

Reliance Life’s group single premium increased to Rs 17.48 crores in first months of 2012-13 as against Rs 15.60 crores in corresponding period previous year. However, it witnessed a fall of 50% in its individual single premium.

Individual single premium for LIC during April-July 2012 declined by 16% to Rs 3,376 crores as against Rs 4,019 crores in corresponding period last year.

Private insurers almost halved their individual single premium to Rs 616 crores compared with Rs 1,239 crores.

LIC’s first year premium for July 2012 jumped by more than 50% to Rs 9,407 crores as against Rs 6,065 crores in July 2011.

During April-July 2012, single premium collection of Max Life stood at 14 crores as against Rs 29 crores in corresponding period last year.

New Business Income of Life Insurers Surged 16% in April-July

growthLife Insurance industry during April-July 2012 period reported a growth of 16.37% on year-on-year basis in new business income.

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) posted a growth of 23% in new business income during April-July 2012 to Rs 23,858 crores.

However, private sector insurers witnessed a decline of 0.9% in income from sales of new policies.

Despite slowing economic environment and volatility in the stock markets, the industry witnessed a modest growth in FY’12.

SBI Life lost its position of being the largest private sector life insurer to ICICI Prudential.

SBI Life posted a decline of 21.43% in business by selling new policies to Rs 1,258 crores.

On the contrary, ICICI Prudential reported a growth of 24% in new business income to Rs 1,399 crores.

IRDA imposed penalty of Rs 1.18 cr on ICICI Prudential Life

ICICI PRUDENTIALInsurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has imposed a fine of Rs 1.18 crore on ICICI Prudential life for violating norms. This is the highest ever penalty imposed by IRDA on a life insurer. Violations include paying commission to agents and brokers exceeding the permissible limit.

During an inspection in November and December 2010 IRDA observed 42 possible violations by ICICI Prudential and out of which ICICI Prudential has been charged for six violations.

In FY’10 and FY’11 ICICI Prudential life paid commission beyond the permissible limit to nine corporate agents. These corporate agents include Sharekhan Financial Services and India Infoline Insurance Services.

In FY’11 ICICI Prudential paid Rs 36.26 crore to India Infoline as commission as against permissible limit of Rs 31.68 lakh. Netambit was paid Rs 26.52 crore against permissible commission of Rs 13.48 crore. In FY’10 ICICI Prudential paid Rs 49.33 crore to India Infoline as commission against the permissible commission of Rs 2.97 crore. There were eight such incidents.

ICICI Prudential was found to have entered into various incomplete agreements with its group companies without specifying the fees, though they were acting as the corporate agents and referral partners of ICICI Prudential life and were receiving the commissions and referral fees.

ICICI Prudential was also found to be making payments to its distribution channel partners in the name of (sales, marketing and business support expenses) and (agent’s incentives).

IRDA imposed additional penalty of Rs 40 lakh on ICICI Prudential for giving incentives to its referral partners in the name of infrastructure support during FY’10 and FY’11.

ICICI Prudential has also been found to have given incentives to brokers beyond the legal limits. During 2009-10 ICICI Prudential remunerated Bajaj Capital Insurance Broking and Standard Composite Insurance Brokers 152.94% and 402.53% of the legal limit, respectively, higher than the prescribed limits. There were seven such incidents in FY’10 and FY’11 involving six insurance brokers. For this violation IRDA imposed fine of Rs 20 lakh on ICICI Prudential.

ICICI Prudential also created multiple code numbers for a single corporate agent or broker based on the locations of the business procured. For this violation IRDA imposed fine of Rs 11 lakh on ICICI Prudential.

IRDA has directed ICICI Prudential Life to pay the penalty within 15 days.

ICICI Prudential Moving to Integrated Geographic Structure

ICICI PRUDENTIALTo drive profitability and growth private sector insurer ICICI Prudential Life has moved from vertical structure to integrated geographic structure. This move will not only bring accountability and responsibility among its staff but also ownership for the geography, in terms of people, cost, profitability for the state, market share, and the top line.

Company is trying to create an entrepreneur and CEO in each geography. Under this structure geography heads will be responsible for each state with complete responsibility and ownership for that region.

Company has divided states into several districts to have cluster heads that will be responsible for a set of districts. This will eventually become a branch.

At the branch level there will be branch head that will have whole responsibility. Holding branches accountable for performance, he will be given incentive as branch head will take ownership for new recruits and help them succeed.

Company’s number of employees has come down to 14,000 from 30,000 in 2007. But since last two years company’s headcount has remained almost stable as Company is continuing with its replacement hiring. Company has succeeded in arresting early attrition.

To reduce cost company has also started e-learning. Soon company will bring certification programme for its employees.

The frontline sales force contributes about 80% of company’s total staff. But company wants to build flexible workforce that can move across functions. Hence, Company is increasingly seeing more people moving from sales to operations and vice-versa.

Company is willing to have productive workforce hence, its high performing employees are given ‘Tatva’ award for exemplary customer service across the country.

Company also uses technology to deal wit its customers and employees. Company has active internet facility for its employees, where latest updates about the company are regularly updated.

To enable customers to understand its product in better manner, company has also provided product information on tablets.