iii'Through IFSC India can become re-insurance hub in SAARC'

Putting high hopes on the India's first International Financial Services Centre(IFSC) at GIFT City here, insurance regulator IRDAI's chief T S Vijayan said it can make India a leading player in the multi-billion dollar re-insurance segment.
Speaking at a conference on 'Regulatory Framework for IFSC in India' at Mahatma Mandir here, he said that India can become re-insurance hub of SAARC countries.
"Indian insurance industry is very big, as Rs 4 lakh crore is collected as insurance premium every year. Out of that, Rs 7,300 crore is paid to re-insurance companies abroad, because we don't have the capacity. Globally, USD 220 billion is collected every year towards re-insurance premium. That is the scale of this business," said Vijayan.

"There are around 100 such re-insurance firms.... Our re-insurnce business goes abroad because we don't have the capacity. We are targeting these firms. We want to invite them to start their operations at IFSC. This can make India a re-insurance hub of SAARC countries," said Vijayan.
Re-insurance is the insurance which is purchased by other companies as part of risk sharing strategy. When an insured person pays premium to the original insurance firm, some part of it goes to the re-insurance firms.
Describing the rules and regulations for such Indian as well as foreign firms wanting to start the business at IFSC, Vijayan stated that India too has enough capacity to be a leader in re-insurance business, provided it creates an environment and the required infrastructure.

"IRDA will provide dynamic regulations to attract these re-insurance firms to start their business here, which will ultimately increase our capacity in re-insurance segment. IFSC is capable of making all these things available which were not in the past," said Vijayan.