 "Digitising policies won't cost insurers much: CAMSRep")
S V Ramanan, chief executive officer of CAMS Repository Service (CAMSRep), has said digitising of insurance policies would involve only a nominal cost.
CAMSRep, Computer Age Management Services (CAMS)’s insurance repository, has been authorised by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to act as an insurance repository.
“Though different insurers will have different arrangements with each insurance repository, the charges will be nominal. On an average, it could be Rs 75-80 for digitising policies per person; the annual servicing fee could be Rs 800-1,000. This is nominal, compared to the amounts spent by insurers to maintain physical documents,” Ramanan said.
An insurance repository is a facility to help policyholders buy and keep insurance policies in electronic form. Customers can opt for portability—shifting from one repository to another. For this, they would be given a new e-insurance account.
Currently, there are about 330 million life insurance policies and 90 million general insurance policies in the country. Irda’s estimates suggest companies spend Rs 150-200 per customer annually in maintaining policies in physical form. Irda’s initiative to digitise policies is expected to help the industry save about Rs 100 crore annually.
CAMSRep also provides outsourcing services to insurance companies, including new policy applications, agent enrolments, welcome calling and persistency calling. In these segments, it has 14 clients—12 life insurers and two general insurers.
Ramanan said the company had 1,600 e-insurance accounts, and this number was rising rapidly. It was considering having more licentiate and associate fellows, he said. Currently, it has about 35 licentiates.
Ramanan said CAMSRep was a neutral entity, without any conflict of interest with insurers or brokers/agents.
“We have many channel partners with conflicting businesses.
Hence, confidentiality of customer data is guaranteed,” he added. The service delivery model, he said, was spread across about 380 locations. CAMSRep plans to have 1,00,000 accounts by the end of this financial year. In the next few weeks, it plans to tie-up with 12 insurance companies.
All transactions between insurers and the repository are carried out on the i-Trex platform.
So far, Irda has only allowed digitisation of life insurance policies. Ramanan said he expected a go-ahead for digitisation of general insurance policies by December. CAMSRep is in talks with the four state owned general insurers--- New India Assurance, National Insurance, United India and Oriental Insurance---and a large private general insurer for possible tie-ups, once Irda gives the nod. Initially, medical and motor insurance policies could be offered in e-format.
CAMSRep, Computer Age Management Services (CAMS)’s insurance repository, has been authorised by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to act as an insurance repository.
“Though different insurers will have different arrangements with each insurance repository, the charges will be nominal. On an average, it could be Rs 75-80 for digitising policies per person; the annual servicing fee could be Rs 800-1,000. This is nominal, compared to the amounts spent by insurers to maintain physical documents,” Ramanan said.
An insurance repository is a facility to help policyholders buy and keep insurance policies in electronic form. Customers can opt for portability—shifting from one repository to another. For this, they would be given a new e-insurance account.
Currently, there are about 330 million life insurance policies and 90 million general insurance policies in the country. Irda’s estimates suggest companies spend Rs 150-200 per customer annually in maintaining policies in physical form. Irda’s initiative to digitise policies is expected to help the industry save about Rs 100 crore annually.
CAMSRep also provides outsourcing services to insurance companies, including new policy applications, agent enrolments, welcome calling and persistency calling. In these segments, it has 14 clients—12 life insurers and two general insurers.
Ramanan said the company had 1,600 e-insurance accounts, and this number was rising rapidly. It was considering having more licentiate and associate fellows, he said. Currently, it has about 35 licentiates.
Ramanan said CAMSRep was a neutral entity, without any conflict of interest with insurers or brokers/agents.
“We have many channel partners with conflicting businesses.
Hence, confidentiality of customer data is guaranteed,” he added. The service delivery model, he said, was spread across about 380 locations. CAMSRep plans to have 1,00,000 accounts by the end of this financial year. In the next few weeks, it plans to tie-up with 12 insurance companies.
All transactions between insurers and the repository are carried out on the i-Trex platform.
So far, Irda has only allowed digitisation of life insurance policies. Ramanan said he expected a go-ahead for digitisation of general insurance policies by December. CAMSRep is in talks with the four state owned general insurers--- New India Assurance, National Insurance, United India and Oriental Insurance---and a large private general insurer for possible tie-ups, once Irda gives the nod. Initially, medical and motor insurance policies could be offered in e-format.