Is the General Insurance Business in Bangladesh Financially Distressed?

Abstract

Nowadays, the forecast of the financial crisis is a significant concern for all companies and stakeholders. As a fast-growing economy, the insurance industry in Bangladesh is also a significant concern. Nevertheless, the performance and contribution of Bangladeshi insurance companies are highly criticized by scholars. Therefore, with the motivation to provide a comprehensive overview of the financial health of the general insurance industry in Bangladesh, we have done secondary research on a total of 18 general insurance companies in Bangladesh from 2014-2018. Throughout the study, we tested the widely accepted Altman Z Score model to predict a major financial concern called bankruptcy. We found that 95% of the selected companies secured the safe but not in the highly satisfactory calculated value of the Altman Z score model. Therefore, as expected, this finding highlights the success of the growing nature insurance business in Bangladesh. Also, as the Z score model has high predictive power in the case of predicting financial distress, our findings could be valuable path for stakeholders in making the right decision for investment.