The importance and role of insurance in modern economy is immense. Insurance companies have been helping the economic development of the country by collecting money in the form of premiums across the country and investing in various profitable sectors. The insurance sector is also directly or indirectly responsible for ensuring the security of national assets.
Since 1984, the government of Bangladesh approved private insurance companies, currently 46 public and private non-life insurance companies are doing business in the country’s market. Out of this, the investment of private 45 non-life insurance companies in 2020 is about 4 thousand 815 crores.
Insurance News BD has got such a picture of total investment by reviewing the information provided in the 2020 annual financial reports of 45 non-life insurance companies.
Out of the 45 non-life companies, 15 companies have an investment of over Tk 100 crore. The investment of these 15 companies is 61.90 percent of the total investment in the non-life sector. Which is 2 thousand 966 crores 89 lakhs in taka. And the total investment of the remaining 25 companies is 1,826,100,000 taka.
The largest investment is Reliance Insurance. The total investment of the company in 2020 is 584 crore 36 lakh taka. Which is 12.14 percent of total investment in non-life sector. Green Delta Insurance is next with 11.28 percent investment. Green Delta Insurance’s investment in 2020 is Tk 543 crore 25 lakh. As such, the investment amount of the two companies is 23.42 percent of the total investment in the non-life sector.
Except Reliance and Green Delta Insurance, no other company has investment above 300 crores. Pioneer Insurance is in the third position with an investment of Tk 287 crore 21 lakh. In terms of the amount of investment, Eastern Insurance is the next position, the company’s investment is Tk 2.7 billion.
After that, respectively, the investment is Tk 183 crore 84 lakh of Pragati Insurance, Tk 183 crore 76 lakh of Dhaka Insurance, Tk 123 crore 59 lakh of People’s Insurance, Tk 114 crore 20 lakh of Mercantile Insurance, Tk 110 crore of Standard Insurance. 92 lakhs, Express Insurance 181 lakhs, Sikdar Insurance 1849 lakhs, Asia Insurance 1816 lakhs, Rupali Insurance 1694 lakhs, Phoenix Insurance 120 lakhs 78 Lakh Taka and Bangladesh National Insurance 100 Crore 49 Lakh Taka.
Apart from this, 6 more companies have investment between Tk 90 to 100 crores. Out of this, Karnaphuli Insurance has invested Tk 97.55 million, Bangladesh General Insurance Tk 93.13 million, Eastern Insurance Tk 93.7 million, Paramount Insurance Tk 92.76 million and Nettle Insurance Tk 92.36 million.
5 companies have investment below 30 crore rupees. Bangladesh Cooperative Insurance has the least investment among them. The investment of the company is 2 crore 98 lakhs. Union Insurance 13 crore 92 lakh Taka, South Asia Insurance 24 crore 78 lakh Taka, Desh General Insurance 25 crore 26 lakh Taka and Meghna Insurance investment 28 crore 17 lakh Taka.
Reliance Insurance Chief Executive Officer Khaled Mamun told Insurance News BD about the investment, if we say the reason for the increase in our company’s investment, it is all due to the management. The company is benefiting from their far-reaching thinking. The management gives some guidelines in investing, these places can be invested not outside of it. I can’t say what other companies do. We follow instructions. As a result, our company’s investment is increasing.
Sheikh Abdur Rafiq, Chief Executive Officer of Sikdar Insurance, said that each company’s investment is different. We are free of re-insurance, taxes and VAT. Even though we do less business, our cost is also less so our investment has increased. Larger companies have higher various expenses including management expenses and as a result their investments are not increasing as much. Whereas an old company still earns the same income it used to earn. But even though their income is the same, their expenses have increased, so our expenses have not increased. So we have come to this position.
Bangladesh Institute for Professional Development (BIPD) Director General Kazi Md. Mortuza Ali said, only non-life is the same as life. But if you invest all the non-life companies together, you will not be able to understand who is doing well. New or 4th generation companies will not naturally do well, but if 1st generation companies do not do well, it is their failure.
