Insurance firms told to pay out claims promptly
Insurance firms told to pay out claims promptly
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Finance's director of insurance,
Sophar Toruan, told insurance firms yesterday that delaying
insurance claim payments is against government regulations.
"We have found several insurance firms which failed to pay
their clients' claims immediately after they were submitted.
Instead, those firms paid the claims in installments," Sophar
said yesterday.
Current regulations do not allow insurance firms to pay out
their claims on an installment basis.
"We urge clients who may have been treated that way to report
their cases to the finance ministry by mentioning the names of
the errant firms," he said.
At least three firms have been warned by the finance ministry,
he said, without identifying the firms.
The finance ministry, as the only supervisor of insurance
companies, can revoke the license of any company after three
warnings.
Currently, there are 56 life insurance firms, 98 loss insurers
and four re-assurers licensed by the finance ministry.
"I would like to remind potential clients to carefully choose
insurance firms."
Sophar said that based on the latest ratio of investment to
technical reserves, most insurance companies, both life and loss
insurance, have low solvency.
He said that in the middle of this year, only 35 life
insurers and 83 loss insurers recorded an investment-to-technical
reserve-ratio of 100 percent or more.
He said that the minimum ratio for a healthy insurance firm is
set at 100 percent.
At the top of the list of healthy life insurance companies are
PT Pasaraya Life Insurance, PT AMP Panin Life, PT ASPAC Life
Insurance, PT Zurich PSP Life Insurance Indonesia, PT Asuransi
Rama Life and PT Panin Life.
The top loss insurance firms are PT Karyamas Sentralindo, PT
Pool Asuransi Indonesia, PT Marannu Mario Asuransi, PT Panin
Insurance, PT LLoyd Indonesia and PT Asuransi Jasaraharja Putra.
Sophar said that his office has developed an early warning
system to help it control insurance companies. It carries out
desk-auditing on quarterly financial reports and directly
supervises firms which provide unqualified reports.
Sophar said that as of June 30, there were 54 life insurance
firms with assets totaling Rp 6 trillion, up from Rp 5.3 trillion
as of the end of last year. Total investments increased to Rp 4.6
trillion from Rp 4 trillion.
He said that the total assets of loss insurance firms reached
Rp 5.3 trillion in June and total investments Rp 3.6 trillion,
compared to Rp 4.8 trillion and Rp 3.2 trillion at the end of
last year.
The biggest life insurance firms in terms of investment, as of
June 30, are PT Asuransi Jiwa Bersama Bumiputera 1912 (with a
total investment of Rp 935 billion), PT Asuransi Jiwasraya (Rp
901 billion), PT Asuransi Lippo Life (Rp 567 billion), PT ASABRI
(Rp 444 billion), PT Panin Life (Rp 341 billion) and PT Asuransi
Jiwa Dharmala Manulife (Rp 245 billion). (alo)