Devesh Srivastava, CMD of GIC Re, on Tuesday said that the growth in general insurance industry is not as much as it was last year. He also said that COVID-19 has been a dampener and it will affect the company but with a lag.

However, he expects to see a 14-15% growth in motor segment as general insurance business revives. “Motor for us will mirror that of the direct insurance companies. Motor doesn’t need much reinsurance and so most of our portfolio, large bit of it is from the obligatory sessions. So, as the direct insurance companies bounce back to the 14-15% for motor, we will follow suit, but of course with a lag,” he said.

He also believes that speciality segments like liability will see a faster growth. He also expects segments like cyber insurance to see a strong growth going forward.

Srivastava said that they have trimmed the agri book and it has been a benign year for the portfolio.

“Agri is looking very good because the book has been trimmed and made very good now. Secondly, we have had a very benign year. Both khairf and rabi are good for us. So going forward agri will be for us,” he said.

He also said that the company is not risk averse but is looking at choosing cedents in a more judicious manner.

“I would say we are not risk averse. In fact it is my job to embrace the risk; that is what I am paid for. The cutting difference is choosing your cedents in a more judicious manner so you start putting your capacity behind a company which is aptly respecting your capacity and not only feeding you with losses."

"So, as a reinsurer we have loads of tools and so if you have a certain treaty which is not performing well, you will possibly cut down on the commissions or you will giving a sliding scale commission, or you will put a lock participation clause. These are tool we employ to make a loss making treaty more palatable to us,” he said.

He also said that the improvement in combined ratio is sustainable and they are looking at bringing combined ratio to 100 in 6-8 quarters.

For full interview, watch video.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Mar 16, 2021 5:04 PM IST