Ranbaxy enters insurance sector with Aegon.

Promoter group of Ranbaxy and Aegon signed an agreement to enter life insurance sector and also asset management to be implemented by their financial services wing Religare. Ranbaxy group and Aegon will hold 44% and 26% respectively in the business while the remaining 30% will be held by Bennet Coleman an investor. Mr.Malvinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy group told on the occasion that they are happy to join hands with Aegon to establish business in the high growth of area of insurance. Mr. Alexander Wynaendts, board member of Aegon JV said that India is an important market for them with the significant potential of growth for the products and services they provide and that they are confident of building a valuable partnership with Religare.

Banks withdraw from bancassurance pacts

As many as eight PSU banks are planning to enter market for insurance products directly.
Consequently their bancassurance deals with existing insurers have to be terminated as per IRDA regulation, which permits banks to sell products of one insurance enterprise only. Mainly the private insurance players would find it difficult to market their products through reliable and well spread out vendors, as almost every one of them besides PSU
General insurers namely National Insurance and United India insurance have pacts with
Banks.

BOI and Union Bank have formed a JV with Dai-chi to enter business. According to the CMD of BOI Mr.Balachandran, who hold the majority share in the insurance venture, is presently in the process of applying to IRDA for license and expecting to start the venture in the next financial year. As a result both BOI and Union Bank have to discontinue their pacts with their respective insurance associates.

Allahabad bank with Karnataka bank and IOB have linked an agreement with Sampo for entering general insurance and are in the process of applying for license and expect to commence business in the ensuing financial year.

Similarly Bank of Maharashtra has tied up with Shriram group for non life insurance business.

ING group tie up with India Post

Business Line reports that ING group is in talks with department of posts for retailing life insurance products in its endeavor to expand distribution of the products of INGVysya Life Insurance. ING Vysya holds 26% while Exide Industries, Gujarat Ambuja Cement hold 50% and 14.87% respectively with the remaining 9.13% is with Enam Group and Roopchand Bansali. ING already have a similar tie up with Japan Post for its venture in Japan. It is looking at replicating the same model in India also for distribution of its products. It is understood that many other insurers are also attempting to associate India Posts. India Posts will also stand to benefit from such tie up to turn its deficit into surplus. ING Vysya is also trying other channels for distribution. One such is its arrangement with Chennai Fertilizers, which enables it to sell insurance products to farmers through fertilizer distribution channel.

Bright prospects for life insurance business.

Shri.N.S.Kannan, ED of ICICI Prudentioal Life Insurance said that their first year premium increased by 17% in 2004-05 and 34% in 2005-06. This year the increase is 100%. According to him the fundamentals of the economy are good while the life insurance business can ride high by expansion, product innovation and reforms making all out attempts to garner the increase in disposable income.

HDFC Life Insurance puts up AML solution

HDFC Life Insurance has put into effect anti money laundering solution. It is system which combines customer profiling thro’ KYC, customer rating, identification, behaviour profiling, customer links an STR reporting. It was developed by Infrasoft Technologies and named OMNI Enterprise, specifically developed for insurance segment for easier AML operation. It provides regulatory reporting, internal risk assessment automatically and easily integrate with back office system. According to Mr. Hanuman Tripathy, MD, Infrasoft Technologies this solution adopts component based architecture and is designed to fit into any existing financial institution’s system with very short deployment cycle.

Andhra Bank searching for partners in insurance

Mr.Kalyan Mukherjee executive director of Andhra Bank said that the bank would not participate in any venture where its shareholding goes below 26% and added that if the shareholding is below 26% then it is only an investment and not a venture. He also said that though the gestation period is six years, life insurance is a better venture than non life insurance. He further said that a life insurance joint venture will banks to cross sell products and will be beneficial for long term growth plan.

NEW branch of Kotak Life insurance at Trichy

Mr.G.Muralidhar, COO of Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd., inaugurated a full fledged branch at Trichy. On the occasion he said that the company intends to penetrate into Tamilnadu for a large share of the insurance business. The company is having 64 branches in 45 cities. The Trichy branch will cater to the needs of population in towns and rural area of the surrounding districts. The company intends to station about 150 advisers for the purpose. Kotak Life Insurance achieved 122% growth in the first year premium income collection during first half of FY 2006. The company posted an increase of about Rs.150 crores in total premium income in half year 06.

Bajaj Allianz Life launches new plan with guaranteed return

Launching their new Unit Gain Guarantee – SP plan, Mr.Shanthilal Area Head, Mangalore said ‘new Unit Gain Guarantee – SP plan is a customer need based product. It is extremely customer friendly and provides “Jaisi jaroorat Vaisa insurance” with peace of mind and assured protection to investor even if the markets slide down. Unit Gain Guarantee plan is a life insurance plan with death benefit of sum assured plus Fund Value offering protection to the family and the policy holder. This is unique in the sense that it offers choice of life cover with capital guarantee. This policy is available even on an investment of Rs.25000 with the twin benefits, with tax benefits.

Simplylife from Birla Sun Life

Birla Sun Life launched another unit linked plan Simplylife. This policy entitled for tax benefits is a non-medical guaranteed insurance plan and easy to get, as per Mr. Vikram Mehmi CEO, BSLI. This plan comes with 10 year maturity with two fund options namely – balanced and enhancer. This policy is doubly beneficial as it provides life insurance and savings and the sum assured is five times the annual premium.

Indusind offers bancassuance to Aviva

Aviva Life Insurance and Indusind partner to offer bancassurance for products of Aviva. Aviva Life Insurance now has 31 tie- up arrangements in bancassurance channel, the largest number of bank partnerships among private insurers. Bhaskar Ghose MD of Indusind told that they are well on their way to offer many retail banking products with this tie up to their customers. He was also certain that their association with Aviva would enable them to offer innovative products and services to their customers. The bank shares “ vision and values of Aviva and expects to provide insurance products like Lifelong, Saveguard, Saveguard Junior, Easylife Plus and pension Plus to bank customers” as per the bank’s MD. The partnership will be on referral type business model.

Aviva increases capital

Aviva Life Insurance announced an increase in its capital base to take the total paid-up capital to Rs.7.58 billion. Mr.Bret Paterson, MD of Aviva India said that Aviva has long term commitment to India and the current capital infusion of Rs.1.99 billion would allow them to expand their operations and launch new products. He further said that they plan to increase their branches to 192 in the year 2007 with expanded strength of sales force to 31000. Aviva’s capacity in fund management is the main differentiator and almost all their fund have very attractive growth rate at 20% plus.

Bajaj Allianz aims cent percent growth.

CEO of Bajaj Allianz Life Mr. Sam Ghosh said that the company which is growing requires fresh infusion of additional capital. To meet the growth target the company would increase their capital base by Rs150 crores. Rs100 crores would be added to its capital of Rs.570 crores before March end this year. He further informed that they are planning to double their premium income from the present Rs.5000 crores to Rs 10000 crores during the nest financial year. The company plans to focus on health insurance sector in a big way. Launching a health insurance plan Mr.Ghose said that they expect 30 to 40 percent of their premium income from health insurance plans during the next three to four years. They have on the anvil many health insurance products to be launched in the coming months. According to him health insurance penetration in the country is very low now and has high potential. On a query as to whether their company have achieved break even, he said that it would take another four years.

Syndicate Bank to provide life insurance for transport drivers

Syndicate Bank adds new direction in financial planning. It is offering insurance cover to transport drivers. Their official informed that ‘this segment (truck drivers) does not enjoy banking facility. It is our intention to service them by bringing them under the financial inclusion plan’. Under the insurance plan called ‘Syndriver Samruddhi and Suraksha’ Syndicate bank provides cover up to Rs.2 lakh in the event of death and Rs.1 lakh in the event of permanent and partial disability. For availing this, the driver or owner should have a fixed deposit with them ranging from Rs.10000 and Rs.20000 depending on the age of the driver of HCV or Rs.6000 to Rs.12000 for the driver of a LCV. The insurance cover is provided in association with Baja Allianz Life Insurance. Mr. C P Swarankar CMD of the bank said that they are already reaping the benefits of this financial inclusion.

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