For underwriting the non-life insurance business of Bangladesh, Sadharan Bima Corporation was formed by the government in the year 1973. Up until 1984, SBC was the sole insurer of non-life insurance business in the country. In the same year, some private sector non-life insurance companies started operation. Since then, it is providing reinsurance support to private sector non-life insurers. With regard to regulatory control, Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority of Bangladesh regulates all insurance companies in Bangladesh including Sadharan Bima Corporation. Sadharan Bima Corporation is the only insurer of properties owned by Government of Bangladesh. No other private non-life insurance companies are allowed to insure any public property. Under an agreement between Sadharan Bima Corporation and Bangladesh Insurance Association, half of the general insurance business in the country so acquired from insuring public properties, is equally distributed among the private sector non-life insurance companies who, on the other hand, compulsorily reinsure half of their re-insurable business with the SBC. SBC has recently been very active in capturing all public sector insurance business, and experts say that this move will definitely enhance the revenue of the corporation.
Management
The board of directors of SBC consists of 11 member including one part-time chairman. Of the members, 9 are honorary and the rest one, the chief executive officer of the company. Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam is the current chairman of Sadharan Bima Corporation. Apart from his teaching job at the University of Dhaka, he has been discharging his duties as Chairman of Sadharan Bima Corporation.
Business performance
The business performance of SBC in the last decade or so is on an upward trend in comparison with the overall performance of the Bangladesh insurance sector. In the year 2018 SBC has managed to grow its profit by 8%. Moreover, the repeated devastating insured events in the RMG sector of the country, namely 2013 Savar building collapse, 2013 Standard Garment fire and 2012 Tazreen Fashion factory fire, have adversely impacted the performance of SBC despite sufficient reinsurance protection. It has earned a direct premium of BDT 1909.6 million and BDT 218.92 in the year 2013 and 2012 respectively. Regarding reinsurance premium. it made BDT 6050.7 million in the year 2013 and BDT 5816.0 million in the year 2012.
The services provided by Sadharan Bima Corporation include insuring public and private property risks, providing liability insurance coverage, reinsurance of the risk underwritten by private non-life insurers, providing Risk Improvement Services, Industrial Development through Equity participation and Human Resources Development for Insurance Industry. Moreover, Sadharan Bima Corporation itself makes retro-cession to different overseas re-insurers.
Criticism
The company has faced censure from the Insurance Regulatory Agency for its failure in realisation of outstanding reinsurance premiums worth about Tk 4.0 billion.
