Claims in Insurance and Claims Management

Claims in Insurance Definition of claims: Claim is a right of insured to receive the amount secured under the policy of insurance contract promised by Insurer. An insurance claim is the actual application for benefits provided by an insurance company. Policy holders must first file an insurance claim before any money can be disbursed to the hospital or repair shop or other contracted service. The insurance company may or may not approve the claim, based on their own assessment of the circumstances. Individuals who take out home, life, health, or automobile insurance policies must maintain regular payments called premiums to the insurers. Most of the time these premiums are used to settle another person’s insurance claim or to build up the available assets of the insurance company. When claims are filed, the insured has to observe the settled rules and procedures and the insurer has also to reciprocate in a Continue reading

Rights Offering (Issue)

Whenever an existing company wants to issue new equity shares, the existing shareholders will be potential buyers of these shares. Generally the Articles or Memorandum of Association of the Company gives the right to existing shareholders to participate in the new equity issues of the company. This right is known as ‘pre-emptive right’ and such offered shares are called ‘Right shares‘ or ‘Rights issue‘. A rights issue involves selling securities in the primary market by issuing rights to the existing shareholders. When a company issues additional share capital, it has to be offered in the first instance to the existing shareholders on a pro-rata basis. This is required in India under section 81 of the Companies Act, 1956. However, the shareholders may by a special resolution forfeit this right, partially or fully, to enable the company to issue additional capital to public. Under section 81 of the Companies Act 1956, Continue reading

Margin Trading or Buying on Margin

Buying on margin means borrowing money from a broker to purchase stock. Margin trading allows one to buy more stock than normal. To trade on margin an account is required. The margin account is a credit based account. In an account one can avail loan to buy stocks. Marginable securities act as collateral for the loan. Securities traded in the margin account are the marginable securities. Like any other loan there is interest charged on the amount borrowed. One should read the margin agreement and understand its implications. One is required to maintain an equity amount that ranges from 50-90%. This is otherwise called as maintenance margin. There are certain costs included in margin trading. They are trade commissions, and interests charged on margin debt. Interest is calculated daily and debited in the margin account say every 15th of the month. Margin trading offers another avenue to the brokers for Continue reading

Composition and Importance of Money Market

Composition of Money Market The money market is not a single homogeneous market. It consists of a number of sub-markets which collectively constitute the money market. There should be competition within each sub-market as well as between different sub-markets. The following are the main sub-markets of a money market: Call Money Market. Commercial Bills Market or Discount Market. Acceptance Market. Treasury bill Market. Indian money market was highly regulated and was characterized by limited number of participants. The limited variety and instruments were available. Interest rate on the instruments was under the regulation of Reserve Bank of India. The sincere efforts for developing the money market were made when the financial sector reforms were started by the government. Money markets are the markets for short-term, highly liquid debt securities. Examples of these include bankers’ acceptances, repos, negotiable certificates of deposit, and Treasury Bills with maturity of one year or less Continue reading

Challenges Faced by Indian Commodity Markets

Commodity exchanges in Indian are still at a nascent stage, and there are numerous bottlenecks in the growth of the commodity futures market. The challenges facing the Indian Commodity markets are very serious in nature and cannot be ignored as they can paralyze the agricultural futures markets, much against the objective of agricultural liberalization. The main problem is that the commodity markets are under the control of Government. Towards the growth of any market, the trading conditions or the terms and conditions of contracts play a crucial role. The contracts should be market friendly in terms of attracting both the big and small traders alike. In majority of the contract specifications, it was found that the size is too big for small traders and producers to trade. Unless such finer aspects are dealt with proper attention at the regulatory level and the exchange level, attracting small traders and farmers into Continue reading

Certificate of Deposit (CD) – Definition, Features and Advantages

Certificate of deposits (CD) are short term deposit instruments issued by banks and financial institutions to raise large sums of money. Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a negotiable money market instrument and issued in dematerialised form or as a Usance Promissory Note, for funds deposited at a bank or other eligible financial institution for a specified time period. CDs can be issued by (i) scheduled commercial banks excluding Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Local Area Banks (LABs); and (ii) select all-India Financial Institutions (FIs) that have been permitted by RBI to raise short-term resources within the umbrella limit fixed by RBI. Read More: Money Market In India Features of Certificate Of Deposit Document of title to time deposit. Unsecured negotiable promotes. Freely transferable by endorsement and delivery. Issued at discount to face value. Repayable on a fixed date without grace days. Subject to stamp duty like the usance promissory notes. Continue reading