The Insurance Develop-ment and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) asked the non-life insurers to increase their earnings per share (EPS) 1.5 times the figure last year.
The regulator set the target for the EPS at an online meeting with the heads of non-life insurance companies on Monday.
According to a meeting source, the newly-appointed IDRA chairman Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain said last year, the IDRA slashed the commission for them so their expense can be reduced and profits can be increased.
"The increasing profit should be projected in the EPS," he told to chairmen of non-life insurance companies, the source said.
Shiekh Kabir Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Insurance Association, a group of private life and non-life insurers in Bangladesh, welcomed the instruction of IDRA chairman to increase the EPS.
He said the insurance business depends on the economic activities that were affected during the lockdown that lasted more than two months.
"The sector has been hit hard by the coronovirus and there will be poor growth in 2020," he told the FE.
"So we welcome the target given by the chairman and if we do good business certainly we will increase the EPS," he said.
The EPS is the company's profit allocated to each share of a listed firm, indicating a company's profitability.
Mr Hossain, also chairman of Sonar Bangla Insurance Company, said there has been less-than-expected growth in exports and imports in recent months, which had impacted much of non-life business.
He said the life firms will be much affected this year as agents cannot visit door to door due to the pandemic.
He said the company chairmen requested the IDRA boss to stop reinsurance to overseas companies to save foreign currency and also stop third party insurance.
The gross premium of 33 life insurance companies rose by nearly 7.0 per cent in 2019 before the arrival of the novel coronavirus in the country.
The rate for 46 non-life insurers also grew by nearly 9.0 per cent last year.
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