Even as cover for new-age risks such as cyber liability and directors and officers (D&O) liability has some takers, their penetration is still quite low, says an ICICI Lombard survey.
"The market size of D&O cover in the country is currently at Rs 400 crore. But the problem is its penetration in the country is still very low," said Sanjay Datta, Chief-Underwriting, Reinsurance and Claims, ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
He was speaking to the media after unveiling a report by ICICI Lombard here today.
"India Inc is missing out on critical business risks," he said.
"Data theft and intellectual property insurance are not among the top five risks insured by ITeS companies... It's one of the growing sectors. The only problem is they comprise merely 0.1 per cent of the industry's business."
The cover against data theft and intellectual property includes insuring against re-creation of data and privacy losses.
On major risks the industry faces, Datta said: "They include employees' coverage, property and associated business coverage, business interruption cover and liability cover."
In response to a query, he said there was 40 per cent increase in insurance cover being purchased by corporates post detariffication.
He maintained that the percentage of uninsured damage is too high.
Citing examples the J&K and Uttarakhand floods and the Hudhud cyclone, Datta said: "Only four per cent of the total economic damage incurred in these calamities got paid by insurers."
The study, which covered 292 companies, revealed that while high impact-high propensity risk is more for smaller firms, larger ones consider employee health and accident-related risks as high impact-high propensity.
Only 44 per cent auto and auto ancillary companies opted for product liability covers while only 27 per cent of FMCG companies went for commercial general liability insurance.
