'Indian insurers may be hit after US attack'

new delhi: the terrorist attacks in the us would have an adverse impact on indian general insurance and re-insurance companies, a senior official in loss prevention association of india ltd, said on thursday. "the american fallout is likely to hit indian insurance companies' bottom-lines on account of an expected hike in reinsurance premiuum worldwide," s.narayanswamy, managing director of lpa, said. lpa, a unit of general insurance corporation (gic) providing consultancy to non-life psu companies, expected claims in international markets runing into billions of dollars after the attack, he said. as a result of these loss, international re-insurers like munich rupee, swiss rupee and lloyds, are likely to hike premium worldwide. since indian general insurance companies - new india assurance, oriental insurance, united india insurance and national insurance - reinsured portion of their assets with these international companies, their expenditures on account of reinsurance were also likly to go up, narayanswamy said. "indian companies cannot work in isolation. they might have to follow the price hike in global market," he said. currently, indian insurance companies both life and non-life are required to reinsure a bulk of their policies with gic and the remaining portion of the risks are shared with international companies. gic has reinsurance arrangements with foreign companies also. after the us attack, reinsurance cost of gic is expected to go up.