'Insurance Information Bureau does not disown reports'

The Insurance Information Bureau (IIB), under India's insurance regulator, Thursday said it does not disown its reports, prepared using data given by insurers passed through quality controls and reconciled with data available through other sources.

"The primary data relating to insurance is given by the insurers. Insurers are the data owners and we are mere custodians. That data is put through our quality control for consistency and logical connection," IIB CEO R.Raghavan IANS over phone from Hyderabad.

He was responding to a reported comment made by K.K.Srinivasan, former member of sector regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), on the proposed upward revision of the motor third party insurance premium based on IIB data.

Srinivasan had said IRDA is proposing upward revision of motor third party premium based on data of the IIB, which holds that the data has not been validated by it.

IIB also admits that "there could be errors and omissions", contended Srinivasan.

The IRDA had set up the IIB in 2009 as an independent body to collect, process and disseminate timely, reliable and accurate data.

Explaining the methodology adopted by IIB while preparing its analytical reports, Raghavan said the bureau gets the data from insurers.

"We also reconcile the data with other sources - various returns filed by insurers, annual reports and others. But the data primarily is owned by the insurers," he said, stressing like any other organisation like the credit rating agencies, IIB also puts out certain caveats.

"Other organisations do their own analysis and take certain decisions while using our analytical reports," Raghavan added.

Noting IRDA members (past or present) are responsible for data quality, he said that Srinivasan must be knowing this.