Dr Vivek Joshi, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, chaired a meeting with General Insurance Council and the leaders and CEOs of private sector general insurance companies in New Delhi.

Several critical issues having implications for the general insurance sector were discussed in detail.  These included: -

• Awareness building through continuous interaction with States under State Insurance Plans to increase insurance penetration and coverage
• Distribution channel rationalisation in opening up of the agency channel for the general insurance industry to increase insurance penetration
• Coordinating with State Governments and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to initiate a special drive to ensure compliance of Motor Vehicles’ Act
• Collaboration with Ministry of Health for increasing cashless facility and standardization of treatment costs to boost growth of health insurance
• Encourage adoption of Property/Parametric covers to mitigate financial losses due to natural catastrophes. Devising mechanism to cover the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sector
• Exploring linking of Insurance frauds to the CIBIL score to prevent / mitigate frauds

After fruitful deliberations and focused exchange of opinions on these matters, Dr. Joshi directed DFS officials to take them up actively for resolution. It was also decided that regular meetings will be held with the industry - both private and public sector - so that the growth and development of the insurance sector in facilitated with continuous collaborative efforts.

Insurance sector coordination: regulator and industry to pursue penetration, compliance, cashless claims, parametric covers and fraud mitigation. Coordination between regulator and private general insurers prioritised enhancing insurance penetration via State Insurance Plan awareness, opening the agency distribution channel, and coordinating with state authorities for motor vehicle compliance. Health-sector collaboration aimed to expand cashless claims and standardise treatment costs. Risk-mitigation included promotion of property/parametric covers for catastrophe losses and insuring MSMEs, while fraud mitigation considered linking insurance fraud to credit bureau scoring. Officials were directed to pursue these items and hold regular industry-regulator meetings.