South African insurance companies with most complaints revealed
The Ombudsman for Long-Term Insurance (OLTI) and Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance’s (OSTI) joint annual report for 2022 showed that Santam Structured Insurance had the highest complaints ratio.
The number of claims OSTI receives about each insurer reflects the size of the company’s client base. Therefore, a company with more clients will likely have more claims directed to the OSTI. The inverse is also true.
OSTI added a more accurate metric to measure the number of complaints it receives about an insurer in proportion to the insurer’s size.
This metric shows the number of complaints received by OSTI per 1,000 claims received by the insurer.
According to this report, Santam Structured Insurance had the highest complaints ratio, with OSTI having received 333 complaints and the insurer receiving 25,196 complaints – this translates to 13.216 claims per 1,000.
Santam is far ahead of the insurer with the second-highest ratio – New National Assurance had a ratio of 8.910/1,000.
Old Mutual Insure came in third place with a ratio of 5.863/1,000, while Nedgroup Insurance took fourth place with a ratio of 5.246/1,000.
In general, the reported numbers for 2022 were lower than those of 2021, said the report.
However, this is unsurprising, “given that the brunt of the COVID-19-related insurance claims was felt in 2021”.
| Name of insurer | Claims received by insurers (FSCA statistics) | Complaints received by OSTI | Number of complaints received by OSTI per thousand claims received by insurer |
| Abacus Insurance Limited | 6,209 | 19 | 3.060/1,000 |
| Absa Insurance Company Limited | 174,052 | 694 | 3.987/1,000 |
| AIG South Africa Limited | 9,362 | 10 | 1.068/1,000 |
| Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality SA Limited | 818 | 7 | 0.009/1,000 |
| Auto & General Insurance Company Limited | 261,648 | 305 | 1.166/1,000 |
| Bidvest Insurance Limited | 16,482 | 41 | 2.488/1,000 |
| Bryte Insurance Company Limited | 356,576 | 204 | 0.572/1,000 |
| Budget Insurance Company Limited | 64,609 | 257 | 3.978/1,000 |
| Centriq Insurance Company Limited | 462,063 | 160 | 0.346/1,000 |
| Chubb Insurance South Africa Limited | 1,715 | 9 | 0.005/1,000 |
| Clientèle General Insurance Limited | 92,040 | 7 | 0.000/1,000 |
| Compass Insurance Company Limited | 15,152 | 38 | 2.508/1,000 |
| Constantia Insurance Company Limited | 60,381 | 94 | 0.002/1,000 |
| Dial Direct Insurance Company Limited | 25,363 | 120 | 4.731/1,000 |
| Discovery Insure | 246,046 | 555 | 2.256/1,000 |
| Dotsure Limited | 136,738 | 291 | 2.128/1,000 |
| First for Women Insurance Company Limited | 39,787 | 126 | 3.167/1,000 |
| Firstrand Short-term Insurance | 61,116 | 111 | 1.816/1,000 |
| Genric Insurance Company Limited | 80,093 | 27 | 0.337/1,000 |
| Guardrisk Insurance Company Limited | 317,724 | 571 | 1.797/1,000 |
| Guardrisk Microinsurance Limited | 2,272 | 0 | 0.000/1,000 |
| Hollard Insurance Company Limited | 169,079 | 482 | 2.851/1,000 |
| Hollard Specialist Insurance Limited | 6,775 | 24 | 3.542/1,000 |
| Indequity Specialised Insurance Limited | 3,167 | 5 | 1.579/1,000 |
| Infiniti Insurance Limited | 30,430 | 41 | 1.347/1,000 |
| King Price Insurance Company Limited | 156,980 | 474 | 3.019/1,000 |
| Land Bank Insurance SOC Limited | 0 | 0 | 0.000/1,000 |
| Legal Expenses South African Limited | 20,896 | 87 | 4.163/1,000 |
| Lloyd’s South Africa (Pty) Limited | 3 | 2 | 0.667/1,000 |
| Lombard Insurance Group Limited | 30,147 | 122 | 4.047/1,000 |
| MiWay Insurance Limited | 151,337 | 469 | 3.099/1,000 |
| Momentum Insure Company Limited | 130,734 | 283 | 2.165/1,000 |
| Monarch Insurance Company Limited | 10,892 | 3 | 0.275/1,000 |
| Mutual and Federal Risk Financing | 70,486 | 297 | 4.214/1,000 |
| Nedgroup Insurance Company Limited | 73,008 | 383 | 5.246/1,000 |
| New National Assurance Company Limited | 20,427 | 182 | 8.910/1,000 |
| NMS Insurance Services (SA) Limited | 179,596 | 2 | 0.011/1,000 |
| Old Mutual Insure Limited | 201,085 | 1,179 | 5.863/1,000 |
| OUTsurance Insurance Company Limited | 347,341 | 370 | 1.065/1,000 |
| Professional Provident Society Short-Term Insurance Company Limited | 4,737 | 18 | 3.800/1,000 |
| Renasa Insurance Company Limited | 85,151 | 68 | 0.799/1,000 |
| SAFIRE Insurance Company Limited | 6,263 | 7 | 1.118/1,000 |
| SA Home Loans Insurance Company Limited | 26,622 | 129 | 4.846/1,000 |
| Santam Limited | 409,116 | 518 | 1.266/1,000 |
| Santam Structured Insurance Limited | 25,196 | 333 | 13.216/1,000 |
| SASRIA (SOC) Limited | 583 | 7 | 0.012/1,000 |
| Standard Insurance Limited | 141,413 | 712 | 5.035/1,000 |
| Vodacom Insurance Company Limited | 93,366 | 157 | 1.682/1,000 |
| Western National Insurance Limited | 20,801 | 23 | 1.106/1,000 |
| Workerslife Insurance Limited | 2,990 | 11 | 0.004/1,000 |
| Yard Insurance Limited | 3,912 | 10 | 0.003/1,000 |
| Total | 4,852,779 | 10,044 | 2.070/1,000 |
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