Foreign bank threatened PSU insurer over ships from Iran

The government on Thursday said a foreign bank had threatened to close down the account of state-owned New India Assurance if it did not stop providing insurance cover to ships ferrying oil from Iran.

However, the threat was not executed by the foreign bank, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

"The public sector general insurance companies have not received any such threat except the New India Assurance Co Ltd to whom one foreign bank had threatened to close their account on this issue. However,

this bank has now agreed to continue the account," Meena said.

The Minister further said that there was no deactivation of account of state-run insurers by foreign banks.

He was responding to a query whether several foreign banks had threatened to close the accounts of state-run general insurers if they continue to provide insurance cover to Indian ships ferrying oil from Iran.

Insurance regulator IRDA, Meena said, had informed the government that following the restrictions imposed by the United Nations and the European Union, Europe-based insurers had stopped providing cover to ship owners involved in carriage of cargo or oil consignments from Iran-India-Iran and vice-versa.