INDIA’S GIC PLANS TAKAFUL REINSURANCE

Indian reinsurer General Insurance Corp (GIC) plans to launch a retakaful service — reinsurance according to principles if Islamic financial law — before March 2009, according to GIC chairman and managing director Yogesh Lohiya. He said that “GIC will focus on providing reinsurance support to Takaful insurance companies in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, along with other West Asian countries”. He said that GIC would initially be establishing a retakaful office in its Mumbai headquarters before expanding the service. Mr Lohiya said that “we are an Afro-Asian reinsurer where takaful insurance is getting (more) popular day by day, so we cannot afford to ignore this business”.