ICICI Lombard Q3 profit falls amid rising commissions and employee costs.

🇮🇳 **ICICI Lombard Q3 Profit Declines Amid Cost Increases** India's ICICI Lombard General Insurance reported a decline in third-quarter net profit, announced on Tuesday. The profit after tax fell 9% year-on-year to $6.59$ billion rupees. This reduction occurred despite robust demand in the retail health and motor insurance segments, which drove net premiums up $13\%$ to $56.85$ billion rupees. Profitability was negatively impacted by elevated operational costs, specifically higher payouts to agents and employees. Net commissions increased by $15.5\%$, and employee-related costs rose by $18\%$, the latter reflecting the impact of India's new labor codes. The key underwriting metric, the combined ratio, deteriorated to $104.5\%$ from $102.7\%$ in the year-ago period, indicating that the insurer's claims and expenses exceeded its earned premiums for the quarter.