We get vehicle repaired besides settling claim: Bhargav Dasgupta

ICICI Lombard CEO says scheme part of company's ongoing effort to improve service quality across product categories

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, which sells the motor insurance policies among other product categories, has taken the service angle beyond the claim settlement by offering pick-up and repair of the vehicle as well.

This service comes at no extra cost for the customer and is part of the company's ongoing effort to improve the service quality across the product categories, according to Bhargav Dasgupta, managing director of ICICI Lombard.

Company's service team would now arrange a pick-up for the vehicle and also get it repaired at a garage besides settling the damage claim on the client's request. Usually the vehicle owners handle these things in times of accidents or breakdown of vehicles on the road side.

"We think that focusing on the service is a better way of handling the insurance business than the pursuit for more business at a time the industry was going through the slowdown," Dasgupta told Business Standard.

The growth in general insurance or the non-life sector has come down to 13% in the current year from 19% last year, according to him.

Among other such initiatives, the company has recently launched the out-patient department(OPD) products as, according to Dasgupta, close to 75% of the health related costs of the individuals are incurred from buying medicines among other things.

The company has been maintaining 1-2% higher growth in business over the industry growth while the profitability for the 9 month period ending December, 2013 had grown 50% compared to the same period last year, he said. The industry's current growth was also not discouraging in the light of the two large catastrophes- floods in Uttaranchal and the cyclones in other parts of the country- that occurred in the calendar year 2013.

The company expects to achieve a gross written premium of around Rs 7,500 crore in the current financial year as compared to Rs 6,420 crore last year, according to the company CEO. ICICI Lombard GIC is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and the Canada-based Fairfax Financials Holding Limited.

General insurance sector in the country is of the size of close to Rs 75,000 crore in terms of gross business premium collections and over 80% of the premium collections is spent on the policy holders through claim settlements, according to M Rama Prasad, member(non-life) of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda).