For insurance major Allianz SE, India finds a place among the top ten countries worldwide on 'peril' ranking for natural catastrophes. The company has operations in over 160 nations across the globe, some in association with local partners as the case in India where it has partnered with Bajaj Finserv.

“India is quite high on peril ranking when it comes to natural catastrophes as there are floods, cyclones and earthquakes,” Singapore-based Mark Mitchell, Regional CEO (Asia), Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality SE, said.

Ranked higher than India were countries like the Philippines and Japan where the severity of natural disasters was very high, he added.

Insurance companies have data compliers who have models on natural catastrophes like earthquakes and Bajaj Allianz has built models on flood exposure after the 26/7 Mumbai floods.

But while the earthquakes are reasonably predictable, there were not enough flood models in India. “All models are constantly evolving because of new data and technology, but floods are most difficult to predict because the topography is constantly changing, and the flood mapping becomes irrelevant and obsolete almost as soon as it is made,” Tapan Singhel, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz, quipped.

J&K flood claims

The company has honoured 28,000 claims involving a pay-out of Rs 1,000 crore following the recent floods in Jammu and Kashmir,” Singhel said.

The company has a 23 per cent share in the J&K home insurance market largely because of its partnership with J&K Bank which provided the loans.

Singhel rued that in India less than 1 per cent of the customers who can afford to buy insurance actually ended up buying it pointing out that while a natural disaster evoked some interest initially, within a week it was business as usual.

New home insurance product

The reason why home insurance penetration in the country at a low 0.07 per cent was the lack of awareness coupled with complex, difficult to understand, products.

Bajaj Allianz has launched what it says is the only home insurance plan of its kind in India that provides insurance on an agreed value basis, and takes into consideration the market value of the house rather than just the construction value.

To sweeten it further, just as the auto insurance policy comes with a road side assistance package, the home insurance policy will provide buyers with services of plumbers, electricians and the like, Singhel said, adding, “We want to devise products beyond settling claims.”

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