LAHORE: Federal Insurance Ombudsman Dr Muhammad Khawar Jameel has vowed to increase the contribution of the insurance industry to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) of the country to 1.5 percent from the existing level of 0.8 percent.
Talking to media during his visit to the Lahore region of his establishment, he said, the insurance industry was collecting an annual premium of Rs378 billion through life and general insurance schemes but its contribution to the national GDP is abysmally low. He said he was holding meetings with the top management of various insurance companies on weekly basis under his initiative of urging the industry to contribute more to the national GDP. Also, he said, he has set up an office in Quetta this year to expand his areas of activities around the country. Similarly, another office is successfully operational in Sukkur and plans are being finalized to established office in Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) ahead.
According to him, despite a limited space to operate due to the Coronavirus pandemic, his secretariat continued its un-exhausted efforts to protect the policyholders’ interest and provided them relief through conducting hearings of the complaints electronically. He said his office has ensured a monetary relief of Rs2.13 billion in the year 2020 against Rs410 million of 2019. He further added that some 80 percent of the complaints have been redressed through amicable settlement between the insurance companies and their policyholders.
It may be noted that he had taken charge in January 2020 after serving many business relating institutions in the past. The Federal Insurance Ombudsman is also son of renowned literary figure late Jamil Ud Din Aali.
Highlighting about the nature of complaints he has handled since assuming his office, he said, a major chunk of complaints was relating to Bancassurance. He lamented that a bank manager has become a sales agent of insurance policies under the scheme, which is not part of his job description. It is also highly unfortunate that a bank manager misstates facts to banking customers regarding the insurance schemes to trap innocent customers. He said he has approached to the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Pakistan Banks’ Association to take stock of the situation and save policyholders from fraudulent activities.
He said he is pursuing all the three institutions to separate incentives to the scheme in the larger interest of the banking industry. For example, he said, the top performers are offered foreign trips by the bank management with the support of the insurance companies. Also, he added, the banks’ management has allocated 10 marks in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for good performance under Bancassurance.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed.