Problems & prospects: an analysis of Mercantile Insurance Company Limited

Abstract

The report on “Problems & prospects of Mercantile Insurance Company Limited” has been prepared based on qualitative research as required for completion of MBA degree from BRAC University. In a developing country like Bangladesh, different insurance companies are playing a very crucial role in the economic growth. Though insurance industry has significant prospects in the economy but for some reasons it has failed to achieve its goal to some extent. There are 62 insurance companies in Bangladesh. Among them, Mercantile Insurance Company Limited is the second generation non-life private insurance company and it has been doing insurance business in the country over 19 years since 1996. A qualitative research has been conducted to gather required information where I have taken interviews of four top level employees of Mercantile Insurance Company Limited. The entire report has been categorized into six chapters. In chapter one, the introduction, scope, objective, methodology, and limitations of the report have been described. Then chapter two of the report focuses on the Mercantile Insurance Company Limited—the company overview, its services, vision, mission, and future plans. Here, I also have conducted a financial analysis on the company„s performance since 2002 until 2010 where short descriptions of the performance have been given along with necessary graphical presentations. In chapter three, I have described the internship program under the Department of Finance & Accounts at the corporate office of MICL specifying the departmental responsibilities along with my own responsibilities that I performed as an intern. Here, I have tried to discuss about my work procedures while performing different responsibilities and also my learning from the work experiences. In the report, chapter four and chapter five bear more weight. Chapter four basically works on the topic of this report where a brief description on insurance, Insurance laws and regulatory system, and regulatory conflicts in the insurance industry in Bangladesh along with the emergence of establishing and passing the new insurance act. Besides, the huge prospects of the insurance companies while the new act will be fully functional also has been identified and described. Continuously, in chapter five, the findings have been presented along with developing necessary recommendations addressing both the regulatory authorities and the Mercantile Insurance Company Limited in order to overcome the conflicting situations as well as to make the prospects come true. Then conclusion has been drawn by expressing hope and expectation on the modernization of the insurance sector in Bangladesh competing with its neighbors. Lastly, in chapter six, appendix of the report has been given which encloses the supporting information & documents of the report & references that might be helpful to understand the whole report more clearly. Furthermore, the overall condition, problems, prospects and the recommendations of insurance companies or insurance sector have been discussed. Then, the recommendations for MDIC have been found out so that it can take a look of those and develop its condition to develop its existence in the insurance industry. At the end, it can be said that MICL is one of the leading non-life insurance companies in the insurance industry. It has own reputation and market. For sustaining in the insurance industry it needs to compete with other companies. For that reason it should focus on the innovation and development by competing itself so that it can uplift its own standard from the previous standard.