Private life insurers operate in challenging environment, says Deepak S Parekh

Parekh said life insurers must be held accountable only for the expense management limit by the regulator, Irdai.

HDFC Life insurance chairman Deepak S Parekh on Monday said the country’s private life insurance companies are operating in an extremely challenging and dynamic environment, and would need to invest in technology, skilling and distribution, among others, to stay ahead of the curve.

Addressing shareholders at the life insurance company’s 21st annual general meeting, Parekh said, “We ranked consistently among the top two companies in the private sector in terms of new business premium, closing the year (FY21) at Rs 20,110 crore with a market share of 21.5%.”

On impact of Covid-19, Parekh said the overall impact of the second wave on India’s economy was expected to be milder and largely restricted to the June quarter. Business was expected to pick up in the second quarter. He said increasing the market share was obviously the main objective of the company.

Parekh said life insurers must be held accountable only for the expense management limit by the regulator, Irdai. “In this context, we continue to engage with the regulator to hold life insurers accountable towards only one parameter, i.e. the expense management limit, rather than have numerous rules over what they can or cannot invest or spend on. This would be akin to the concept of a TER (total expense ratio) followed by mutual funds,” he pointed out.