Some insurance premiums to go up: United India chief

Insurance premiums in several segments like fire, group health insurance, and third-party motor insurance, where insurers are losing money, are likely to go up, United India Insurance chairman and managing director G Srinivasan said on Monday.

"There are certain lines of business like fire insurance, group health insurance and motor third party insurance where premium rates will go up. Insurance lines which are making some kind of losses will see some hike in premium rates," Srinivasan told reporters in Mumbai.

 He said the amount of hike would be consumer specific rather than across the board.

Reacting to the government proposal to raise the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector, Srinivasan said it would help in bringing more capital into the insurance industry.

He said his company had no problem with recent initial public offering guidelines released for non-life insurers. "We are quite comfortable with the guidelines (for IPO). We have profits in last five years," he said, adding the government will take the call on listing of the public sector general insurer.

Srinivasan said United India is putting emphasis on upcoming new products in the retail segment. "We have sought IRDA's (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority) approval for one health insurance product recently," he said.