The recent Chennai floods may have brought the normalcy to city people, but loss of property and lives are still haunting the insurance industry with a stack of huge claims. The insurance industry, especially general insurance sector, has estimated that the claims could touch Rs 5,000 crore for this financial year, while Chennai-based United India insurance firm has a lion’s share - of around 1,852 claims worth above Rs 657 crore - which are yet to be settled this financial year.
“Normalcy has already returned to the city following the Chennai floods, but the industry’s concern is that the damages caused by such natural calamity may see the claims settlement to the tune of Rs 4,500-5,000 crore this financial year,” ICICI lombard General Insurance chief (Underwriting & Claims), Sanjay Datta told The Pioneer.
Till date, the maximum number of claims has been received by Chennai-based United India, which has received 1,852 claims, valued at Rs 657 crore and the company has settled over 70 claims only. But till the second week of this month when the water was receding gradually from the city, non-life insurers have received then 10,000 claims valued at Rs 2,500 crore.
“A total number of claims were not registered as many of offices of this sector and nearby areas were shut due to inconvenience and not able to function properly during that time. Now, some clear figures are coming gradually to us and the industry is assessing the right number of claims for the settlement,” said Datta.
As far as the claims are concerned, all insurers have geared up for the settlement as soon as possible. All the four State-owned general insurers have opened 12 centres in Chennai which bore the brunt of the floods to expedite claim settlement. For instance, New India Assurance, the largest general insurer of the country, has received 1,300 claims worth Rs 400 crore and has already settled 25 claims worth Rs 2 crore,” according to a top official of insurer.
General Insurance Council, which represents all the non-life, health and re-insurers, said insurance companies are taking all steps to expedite settlement with minimum documents for the purpose. “The devastating Chennai floods would have created an acute need for buying property insurance in metro cities which would further help in premium collection for the insurance companies in future. However, to achieve this, insurers will have to step up claim settlement speed and customer care,” General Insurance Council Secretary General R Chandrasekaran said.
General insurers have also set up toll-free numbers, helplines and call centres to assist policyholders in submitting their claims. “Insurance companies are taking all steps to assess, process and settle the claims of policyholders expeditiously as they have done in previous disasters like Jammu & Kashmir floods and the Hudhud cyclone,” said G Srinivasan, CMD of New India Assurance.
Also State-owned Oriental Insurance has received 600 claims valued at Rs 150 crore. “We have given waiver of certain documents and we are telling the policyholders that intimation given by them is sufficient,” a senior official of the company said.
Similarly, Tata AIG General Insurance has received 382 claims. Also, the company has opened three dedicated centres in Chennai alone to provide assistance to its policyholders.
“Tata AIG has received 382 claims from the Tamil Nadu floods as of December 2. It includes 130 claims which had been received by the company from the first spell. Gross claim estimate may climb to Rs 50 crore, which includes the prior claim amount of Rs 32 crore from the first spell of rains,” said a senior official.