Growing impatient with the ongoing political turmoil, Lloyd?s of London?one of the world?s largest insurance entities?has decided to exit India after getting what it describes as a ?cold? response from the government on its proposed venture in the country.
Sources in the London market say that as a result of the delay in receiving a positive decision from the Indian authorities, Lloyd?s chairman Peter Levine decided to close the Indian representative office. It is believed that Lloyd?s chief representative in India, Srirang Samant, has put in his papers. However, Samant could not be contacted for confirmation. However, analysts question Lloyd?s hurried decision to exit the Indian market when other reinsurers have been waiting for the past five years for a ?branch licence?, which they prefer over the subsidiary route, to enter the Indian market.
Lloyd?s, after opening its India representative office almost a year ago, had made efforts to convince the Indian authorities, including the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority and the finance ministry, about the model of insurance operations it wanted to set up in the country.
Though known as a reinsurance company, Lloyd?s follows a different model, wherein syndicates operating within it adopt unique systems to underwrite risks from all over the world, through accredited brokers. In a larger context, Lloyd?s is better known as a market in itself rather than just a reinsurance company.
In fact, though in many countries Lloyd?s undertakes reinsurance, for India it had a larger plan to bring in the whole market for both direct insurance and reinsurance. The only other Asian market where Lloyd’s follows this model?albeit on a smaller scale?is Singapore. Levine had also met PM Manmohan Singh on his recent visit to India.