Bajaj Allianz - Technical Head - Commercial Underwriting - West

JOB PURPOSE:

- Decide about terms, conditions, and pricing for businesses arising out of geographies (almost 90% of business) that require market insights, technical assessment of risk parameters, and building a robust portfolio that delivers underwriting profits.

- Produce data and information that shapes underwriting guidelines based on market practices as well as underwriting guidelines for all non-motor products across both corporate and retail channels to ensure the selection of profitable business in minimum turnaround time, keeping loss ratios under control.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Business profitability maintenance:

- Participate in the creation of underwriting guidelines for various types of conditions under which the risk should be accepted on various non-motor products/ policies (such as property, marine, etc.) to maintain the profitability of the company

- Provide guidance to the team in conducting an assessment of proposals/ business opportunities to ensure genuine/ profitable business is acquired to keep the claims ratio in check

- Analyze the potential business opportunities and check their applicability with reinsurance treaty to assess the maximum amount of Risk that can be underwritten (including the proportion of risk to be passed to the reinsurer)

- Ensure assessment of business opportunities happens in a timely manner so that business can be converted in minimum turnaround time

Capability enhancement:

- Conduct training for the team to enhance their technical knowledge of underwriting guidelines and equip them with capabilities to apply those guidelines in various business scenarios

- Provide training to internal stakeholders (sales team and other business partners) and external stakeholders (agents, brokers and third-party vendors) to enhance their knowledge of USPs associated with various products and processes

Business and operational support:

- Support sales team/ agents/ brokers by providing them with products information required to drive high sales

- Provide ideas for the design of new products or upgrade of existing products based on understanding of market requirements to support in driving the growth of business

- Identify and recommend improvement opportunities in underwriting processes (such as improvement of TAT, the introduction of rule-based underwriting where possible, etc.) to increase operational efficiency.

Relationship management:

- Interact with various stakeholders (sales team, compliance team, products team, agents and brokers, etc.) to discuss various products and risks to be undertaken in compliance with regulatory requirements

- Build and maintain relationships with clients to explain and assure them of BAGIC's value proposition, various products, and risk coverage of their business

Team development:

- Participate in the selection process to identify the right talent for positions within the team

- Establish individual performance expectations and evaluation metrics for the team and regularly review their performance

- Identify and create development opportunities for team members to enhance domain knowledge and develop underwriting expertise to drive growth in productivity

- Redundancy and second-line planning for the team.

MAJOR CHALLENGES:

- Manage expectations of sales teams while ensuring business acquired is aligned with underwriting guidelines/ strategy and profitability.

- Acquire manpower with technical experience of underwriting

- Low adoption of technology by business associates

DECISIONS:

- The following decisions are taken by the role within approved budgets and in compliance with regulatory guidelines:

- Acceptance/ rejection of proposals in alignment with reinsurance treaty

- Pricing of Product/proposals (e.g discounting etc)

- Risk Selection for a balanced profitable portfolio and also risk improvement suggestions to client post risk selection

- Some business decisions involving deviation from underwriting guidelines or reinsurance treaty needs a superior's approval when the same is beyond the delegated proposal acceptance authority limits

SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:

Educational Qualifications:

Qualifications: Master's in business administration and/or Bachelor's in Engineering Fellowship in insurance

Work Experience:

- Overall 15+ years of experience with 10+ years in the technical side of the General Insurance business

- Comprehensive understanding of the insurance industry and underwriting guidelines & practices.