Country's life-insurance sector for the first time in many years witnessed a reversal in their business trend in 2013, according the industry-insiders.
They said the insurers had suffered an aggregate business loss worth Tk 300 million compared to their 2012 turnover.
The country's 31 life-insurance firms had a total premium earning of Tk 65.57 billion in 2013 as against that of Tk 65.86 billion of the previous year, according to official statistics prepared by the insurance regulator.
Top life executives blamed it on the political volatility in 2013 over election issue.
The earnings consist of first-year premium and renewals of previous year.
Among the insurance outfits, the earnings by the new 13 life insurers were very insignificant as they started their business early in 2013 and faced with the setback at the very outset.
However, earnings by some big insurance companies were in the positive territory in the year although their growth was tiny in comparison with their previous year's performances, the executives said.
According to secto- statistics, premium earnings by the US-based MetLife Alico, National Life Insurance, state-owned Jiban Bima Corporation, Delta Life and Fareast Life Insurance were among the few that recorded growth in the year under review.
Md Hemayet Ullah, managing director at the Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company, told the FE that political turmoil was the main reason behind the fall in their business.
"My growth was very minimal--around 3.0 per cent. But we used to grow double digit earlier," he said.
KM Mortuza Ali, managing director of the Prime Islami Life Insurance, told the FE he had never seen such type of business tumbledown.
"Our growth since 2010 has been on the fall, but we never have seen negative earnings in a year," Mr Ali, also one of the senior top brasses in the insurance sector, noted.
He went on: micro-insurances were affected largely by the political turbulence in 2013, leading to fall in the earnings from the policies concerned.
"Most of the micro-insurance policyholders are from the womenfolk, involving micro-and-small farms or firms. They were affected by the economic slowdown in 2013," Mr Ali noted.
Micro policies are the biggest chunk of the life insurance, involving around 8.0 million clients, according to Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA)--the insurance regulator.
However, the number of death claims was high in the year under review.
A total of 19,151 death claims were placed for settlements in 2013 against 16001 in 2012.
However, the volume of life fund, a fund after deduction of management expenses by the insurers, stood at Tk 235.31 billion in 2013.
The life fund was Tk 206.63 billion in 2012, more than 90 per cent belonging to policyholders
jasimharoon@yahoo.com
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