About

Lokanath Kar gained extensive experience of Indian corporate and financial laws whilst acting as a practitioner at the Bar Council of Delhi. He then moved to Escorts Group, one of the leading engineering conglomerates in the country, before taking up his current role at Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI Bank) in 2006 as national manager, legal and compliance for its insurance business, ICICI Lombard General Insurance. With the aim of developing and expanding, the department has gone from having eight members to 140, with 110 being lawyers. ‘At a time when no Indian law firm catered to all the needs of insurers’, he grew the in-house team in number and expertise, and it is now regarded by the industry as the ‘thought leader’ in its area according to Kar. As a result of this significant expansion, Kar has trained a significant number of the current head of legal and general counsel positions to the India’s non-life insurance industry. Kar regularly provides consultation to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), India’s insurance regulator, and the industry body, General Insurance Council of India. Recently, Kar was nominated by the IRDAI as a member of the consultative committee constituted for the purpose of examining the scope and developing a scheme for introduction of title insurance in India. A notable influence he has had is urging the IRDAI to prescribe a regulation making it mandatory for the industry to geo-spot all automobile accident locations being reported to them as third party claims in order to identify accident hotspots. Another key piece of his work includes the management of a large motor insurance third party claim portfolio, worth approximately $360m; this part of the business is very important for the profitability of any Indian non-life insurer in the country. During his tenure he has developed innovative internal systems to record decision documentation, manage judicial proceedings and compliance management. Kar says he is also very much a part of the business by having a close working relationship with the CEO and being consulted on every policy decision taken by the CEO and the board of directors. Throughout his career, Kar has become one of the most important professionals in the insurance industry, having had a significant impact on the talent pool within the profession and the approach that industry bodies take.e boutique in the US and Mexico.