KATHMANDU, May 19: Five companies have applied to the Insurance Board (IB), looking forward to receiving an operating license as a reinsurer.  

Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the IB, said they received applications from five companies within the deadline as of Wednesday. According to him, Prudential Reinsurance, Kathmandu Reinsurance, Annapurna Reinsurance, Himalayan Reinsurance and Genuine Reinsurance are among the applicants. “Of these, one will be selected to function as a reinsurance company,” he said.

The IB has maintained that any company with a paid-up capital of Rs 10 billion is eligible for receiving a license as a reinsurer.  The regulator has barred a company having cross holding shares in the existing Nepal Reinsurance Company Ltd as an applicant.

Targeting to curb massive outflows of funds for reinsurance purposes by the insurance companies, the government established Nepal Reinsurance Company Ltd as the first in its type on November 7, 2014. The insurance pool that was set up in 2003 with a 50 percent equity participation of the government and the rest of insurance companies, mainly non-life companies, to cover damages caused by terrorism was converted into the country’s first reinsurer. 

 
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