The Hindu Business Line : United India Insurance plans massive agency recruitment

United India Insurance Company is planning a massive agency recruitment drive. It is anticipating a six-fold increase in agency force from around 15,000 at present to one lakh in three years.

Its Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr G. Srinivasan, said that the company would go all out to strengthen its agency arm.

“We need to reach out to large sections of the populace who are still not covered. There is huge potential. But for the support from our agents, we would not have been able to achieve higher growth rate or increase our market share,” he said.

And to take care of the company’s expansion plans, it is also recruiting officers. “We recently recruited 150 Class I officers, who have been put on 8-week training from September 14. We received 37,000 applications, of which only 150 were able to clear the written test and interview to qualify for the post. They include management graduates and engineers amongst others.” The company employs 17,000 personnel across its 1,400 offices.

HIGHER TARGETS

The company is targeting a premium income of Rs 5,000 crore this fiscal. It earned Rs 4,278 crore of premium last fiscal. Mr Srinivasan said “our growth rate in 2009-10 has so far been comfortable at 16 per cent. We initiated a major transformation drive, launched a multi-pronged strategy to bring down business losses by focusing on the large number of motor third party claims and other segments of business like fire, health, motor (own damage) etc.”

While stating that motor and health insurance emerged as mega growth drivers for non-life insurers, he also admitted that the loss ratio was as high as 105 per cent last year. “Motor was better, but health insurance is the fastest growing segment.”

PAIN POINTS

Mr Srinivasan is confident of bringing the health loss ratio to less than 100 per cent this year. “We are trying to address certain pain points to bring down the loss. On the underwriting side, for instance, a major part of the claims come from corporate group policies. Earlier, we used to cross-subsidise. Now, to ensure that group mediclaim covers do not go awry, we have enhanced the premium rate by 30 per cent and in certain cases even 100 per cent and increased effectiveness on the claims management side.”

“Faster settlement and localised quick decisions work well on motor segment. The company’s motor claim settlement last year stood at 36 per cent,” he said.

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