As the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has started granting approvals to foreign re-insurers here, the country’s sole domestic re-insurer GIC Re is unfazed and sees no significant threat from rising competition.
The state-run company believes that entry of foreign players will bring innovation and increase penetration in the market. Moreover, it also has plans to further diversify its business globally.
The six re-insurers that have received R2 licences from Irdai last month include Swiss Re, Munich Re, Hannover Re, French major SCOR and Reinsurance Group of America and a private domestic re-insurer ITI, whereas Swedish re-insurer XL Catlin was given R1 licence by the regulator.
“We don’t see any significant threat of competition by joining of new players, including six foreign re-insurers and one domestic re-insurer ITI, in the country’s reinsurance market,” GIC Re Chairperson and Managing Director Alice Vaidyan told PTI here on Thursday.
She was speaking on the sidelines of an event which was held by RMS, a catastrophe and risk modelling company.
“We will continue to have our dominant position as we are present here for the past 45 years now,” she said. GIC Re believes that new players will bring innovation and increase penetration in the market.
Talking about her company’s global expansion plan, Vaidyan said “We do have plans to further diversify our business globally.”
The company already has branches in London, Dubai and Malaysia. “We also have representative offices in Moscow and we have got subsidiaries in countries like South Africa and Bhutan. We have plans to convert our rep office in Moscow to a subsidiary in the future. We also plan to open an office in Brazil,” she said.
On GIC Re’s plan to come up with an initial public offering, she said, “We are waiting for the government’s approval for the same.”
On the company’s performance in the first half of the current financial year, she said “Even though we haven’t closed our accounts for the first half so far, I do believe that we have done very well in the first half in terms of premium, profitability and claims.”
