Homeland CEO removed by Idra

Homeland Life Insurance Company Ltd's chief executive officer (CEO) Biswajit Kumar Mondal was removed from his post after failing to provide necessary information to an audit firm appointed by the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (Idra).

In August this year, Idra sought clarification about why the company did not provide adequate information and why its CEO should not be removed.

A letter signed by Idra Executive Director (Life) Nazneen Kawshar Chowdhury and sent to the company on September 21 stated that the CEO was removed under the Insurance Act 2010.

The letter states that the interests of the company and policyholders have been affected because the audit could not be completed properly.

Idra appointed chartered accountant's firm Hussain Farhad & Co in September 2022 to audit the insurer's financials for the 2018-2020 period.

The audit firm then said in a letter to Idra in June 2023 that despite repeated demands, they did not receive adequate documents from Homeland Life Insurance, according to the letter.

Therefore, it is not possible for them to conduct special audit activities properly, the letter said.

The letter also states that many policyholders have complained to Idra regarding non-payment of insurance claims. Some filed cases in various police stations and courts.

Apart from this, allegations of misappropriation of company money have also been raised at different times, the letter said.

It further states that Biswajit Kumar Mandal was not CEO during the period that is under audit.

But as he did not provide the necessary documents and information to the auditing firm, a complete picture of the company's financial affairs, such as premium income, expenses and payment of insurance claims, was not obtained.

By not providing those documents, he was hiding the irregularities of his predecessors, Idra stated in the letter.

More than 37,000 clients of Homeland Life Insurance Company Ltd were facing uncertainty about whether they will get their insured amount owing to a lack of liquidity at the insurer caused by alleged irregularities, according to a report by The Daily Star which was published in July this year.

The company is not settling claims of around Tk 79 crore, it said.

This prompted 6,820 policyholders to lodge complaints with the regulator over the past year as claims were not settled despite reaching maturity, the report added.

Idra estimated that Tk 198 crore has been embezzled from the company, the report also added.

According to Idra, the ratio of the company's policies that lapsed in the second year stood at 68 percent, 62 percent and 66 percent in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

72 percent of the policies lapsed in their third year in 2019 and it was 80 per cent in 2020, it said, adding that only a small number of policies reached maturity.

Of the 2,980 agents of the company, the licences of 2,903 expired.