Out of 10 new life insurance companies, four have started business after obtaining necessary permissions form the Insurance Board.
As per the Provisions, companies have to go into business within six months from obtaining the license. However, before the companies get a go ahead, the Board carries out a preliminary study.
| New Life Insurance Companies |
Status |
| IME Life Insurance |
Started operations |
| Reliance Life Insurance |
Permission Granted |
| Sun Nepal Life Insurance |
Will go into business from Friday, 22nd September |
| Reliable Life Insurance |
Currently running/ Formal event after Dashain |
| Jyoti Life Insurance |
Permission Granted/ Will go into business before Dashain |
| Union Life Insurance |
Permission granted/ Started Operations |
| Citizen Life Insurance |
Obtained License/ yet to get permission |
| Star Life Insurance |
Obtained License/ yet to get permission |
| Sanima Life Insurance |
Obtained License/ yet to get permission |
| Mahalaxmi Life Insurance |
License pending |
The new companies were granted permission after the Board made sure that all the necessary infrastructure requisites such as building, human resource, software and others are as per the requirements set forth by the Board.
Out of the 10 new companies, IME Life Insurance, Sun Nepal Life Insurance and Reliable Life Insurance have already started operations. Likewise, 2 companies, Jyoti Life Insurance and Union Life Insurance will go into business before Dashain. Furthermore, 3 companies, Citizen Life Insurance, Star Life Insurance and Sanima Life Insurance are yet to get permission to start operations. However, Mahalaxmi Life Insurance’s license has been withheld because it failed to comply with the deadline to submit the paid-up capital requirements.
Recently, the Insurance Board had directed the life and non-life insurance companies to hike their paid-up capital fourfold. With the new provisions, Life insurers have to increase their paid-up capital to Rs200 Crore from Rs50 Crore and non-life insurers have to increase their capital to Rs100 Crore from Rs25 Crore.
With the recent developments, the number of life insurance companies operating in Nepal has gone up from 9 to 18.
“Despite an increase in the number of life insurance companies, a large portion of the market still remains untapped,” said Manoj Kumar Lal Karna, Chief Executive Officer of Union Life Insurance Company, “There is less competition in the life insurance arena. Moreover, our company is backed by strong promoters and has a well experienced management team of experts in the Life insurance arena.”
According to Karna, the company will now launch innovative life insurance schemes such as Money Back Whole Life and Limited Payment Policy as per the need of the market.
