January 12: The newly appointed chairman of Insurance Board (IB) Chiranjibi Chapagain has said that the increase in accessibility of insurance sector by  making the sector persistent and reliable will be his first priority. Chaipagain who was serving as Director of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Pokhara Branch was appointed as Chairman of IB by the decision of Ministers' Council taken on December 29.

Chapagain attended an introductory and welcome program on Janaury 11 after being seated in the post. In the program, Chaipagain said that the insurance sector has not developed as expected despite having history of more than 70 years. He said "Therefore, my tenure will be centralised on empowerment and improvement of the sector." He opined that the Acts and Regulation related to the sector will be made up-to-date as the present rules and regulations are age-old. "The history of insurance sector of Nepal lags behind only few years than the banking sector. However, the growth of banking and insurance sector is beyond comparison which should be evaluated," he said.

Stressing that the regulatory body should be tough, he said "Presently, there are 26/27 insurance companies. The number will rise tomorrow. If there is no good corporate governance, the sector will lose the confidence. Thus, the insurance companies should expand its area through good corporate governance and improved employee's efficiency."