A spike in COVID claims pushed up the loss ratio in the health insurance business for ICICI Lombard in the second quarter, even though the motor segment saw lower claims. CNBC-TV18 spoke to CEO of ICICI Lombard for an outlook on COVID claims going forward and for a check on new motor policy sales as the festive season begins.

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Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said that the total aggregate claims that the industry has seen in the six months are roughly about 3,24,000. "For us at ICICI Lombard, the number is at about 17,000, which is largely in line with our market share," he said.

The cause of concern, however, is largely the rate at which the claims have climbed, as per Dasgupta. "If we see the October number, the number seems to be plateauing, in fact tapering a bit," he says.

“At least for ICICI Lombard, given our overall mix of business and the underwriting on the rest of the book, we should be okay," added Dasgupta.

Talking about motor insurance, he further said, “First half - obviously motor numbers were weak. We are reasonably optimistic about the festive season sales. As we speak, private car sales look to be positive to us, commercial vehicles (CV) sale is still muted but improving, two-wheelers still not at the same levels as we would have liked to see it.”

“On balance, we are a bit more optimistic about motor now than we were maybe in Q1,” he added.