LIC's claim settlement better than private insurers: Irda

NEW DELHI: Private insurance companies fared poorly in terms of settlement of death claims in 2012-13 as compared to state-owned LIC, says sectoral regulator Irda.

"The claim settlement ratio of LIC was better than that of the private life insurers," Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority said in its annual report.

Life Insurance Corporation posted claim settlement ratio of 97.73 per cent last fiscal, as compared to 97.42 per cent in 2011-12.

For private insurers, the settlement ratio had gone down to 88.65 per cent in 2012-13, as compared to 89.34 per cent during the previous year, Irda said.

It further revealed that private sector insurance firms have been rejecting about 8 per cent of the claims as against 1.12 per cent by the LIC.

According to Irda, there were 3.47 per cent claims sought from private insurance companies were pending at the end of the year. The similar figure for LIC was 1.04 per cent.

There are about two dozen private life insurance firms in India and the larger ones include ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Standard Life and Reliance Life.

The life insurance industry recorded a premium income of over Rs 2.87 lakh crore during 2012-13, up 0.05 per cent over the previous fiscal.

While private sector insurers posted 6.87 per cent decline in premium income, LIC recorded 2.92 per cent growth in 2012-13 compared to the previous fiscal.