MetLife cover for PNB account holders
Metlife India Insurance Co Pvt Ltd has
launched a group life insurance cover -
Met Group Life - specially designed for
Punjab National Bank ‘s (PNB) account holders.
The scheme has been arranged through PNB
Principal Insurance Advisory Company Ltd.
The scheme is available to all the current
and savings account holders of PNB between
18 and 64 years of age holding accounts
in any of the 1,426 centralised banking
solution (CBS) branches of the bank. According
to the arrangement, PNB would be the single
group policyholder.
Sun Life looks to
India for growth
Sun Life Financial Inc sees India to be
the major contributor to its operations
and plans to double the number of sales
agents in India by next year through its
joint venture Birla Sun Life. The company
plans to open 50 branches in the next 12
months.
"While we have enjoyed early success,
it is still early days in a very competitive
market. But given the correct market position
and strong brand, we believe that India
will continue to be an important market
for Sun Life Financial in Asia as we move
forward." Says, Gary Comerford, Sun
Life's vice-president, international, and
general manager, India
It currently has 11,500 agents in the field,
and that number should rise to 20,000 by
September 2006 at a rate of 750 per month.
U.S.
asks India to ease insurance-stake limit
The Indian government, which limits foreign
insurers' stakes in joint ventures to 26
percent, has promised to raise the limit
to 49 percent. But the U.S. ambassador to
India, David Mulford, has demanded that
foreign insurers be allowed to hold controlling
stakes.
"This promise needs to be delivered
not five years from now, but soon, if India
wishes to regain its credibility in the
eyes of foreign investors," Mulford
said Thursday at a conference in New Delhi.
Foreign companies like New York Life Insurance
and American International Group have formed
joint ventures with Indian partners, since
the government dismantled the monopoly of
state-owned insurers in 2000, seeking to
widen insurance coverage in the nation
"The government is building a process"
to raise the limit on overseas investment
in insurance to 49 percent, Rao said.
Oriental Insurance,
India Post tie-up
Oriental Insurance Company has forged a
strategic alliance with Indian Post to market
its products using the latter's extensive
network. Under the scheme, 34 post offices
in the State will market identified products
of the Company.
The products including health insurance,
personal accident insurance, home insurance
will be sold through post offices. Postal
staff has been trained by the Company to
answer the queries of the customers especially
in rural areas.
The Company will be giving 15 percent commission
to the post office for sale of its products.
Out of this commission, it will share 10
percent with the concerned staff who have
helped to procure the said insurance.
The Company also expects that by using the
network of post office, their products will
have a wider reach. Postal department has
a target of selling the insurance products
to earn premium worth Rs 2 crore during
this fiscal.
Aviva targets one
million rural customers
Aviva Life Insurance India (ALII) has partnered
with Basix, a micro finance institution,
to bring one million members of micro finance
institutions in the country under ‘Credit
Plus' insurance cover by 2010. Credit Plus
was introduced three years back and at present
1.5 lakh out of the existing 2.5 lakh customers
of Basix have been covered under the plan.
ALII, a joint venture of Dabur and Aviva
Plc of UK, launched an enhanced version
of Credit Plus, a group credit-cum-life
protection plan for rural people in the
age group of 18-55 years. The low cost insurance
plan is especially designed for Basix, which
is working with 1.74 lakh poor households
in 27 districts spread across seven states
in the country.
Birla Sun Life plans
to enter micro-insurance
Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) plans to
enter micro-insurance in a big way leveraging
its strong rural distribution infrastructure.
While the strategies are still being worked
out, it is learnt that over a period of
time, the company proposes to cover both
general and crop insurance to the needy
farmers across the country.
The company has built its rural infrastructure
with a cost-effective distribution network
across the country. For this fiscal, the
target for the total policies to be sold
is close to 65,000 (48128 last year) with
NGOs contributing nearly 80% and the rest
by the Aditya Birla Group units.
Life Insurance Council
to set up MMIB
Life Insurance Council, the representative
body of all Life Insurance companies in
India, is floating a new company along with
Actuarial Society of India (ASI). This new
company, Mortality and Morbidity Investigation
Bureau (MMIB) is registered with the Registrar
of Companies in Mumbai.
The main task of this company will be to
prepare a totally new mortality chart, since
the life expectancy has improved. The life
insurers will use this mortality chart to
fix up premiums rates for the various insurance
polices. MMIB will determine the data that
needs to be collected for mortality, morbidity
and other specific risks, which are related
to the contingencies in life insurance domain.
IRDA appoints Central
Public Information Officer
Effective from 13 th October, Right to
Information Act, 2005 comes into force.
To discharge the functions assigned under
the act (IRDA) has designated its Executive
Director (Administration), V. Vedakumari,
as it's `Central Public Information Officer'
and C.R. Muralidharan, the `Appellate Authority'
SBI Life launches
“Dhana Vriddhi”
SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd has launched
"Dhana Vriddhi" - an investment-cum-protection
life insurance policy. It is a non-participating
Single Premium plan and is available for
a fixed period of five years. It is expected
to give a return ranging from 5.86 per cent
to 6.29 per cent on gross single premium
depending upon the amount of sum assured.
Bajaj Allianz's new
HealthCare Plan
Bajaj Allianz
Life Insurance Ltd has launched a HealthCare
Plan that provides comprehensive health
cover with life insurance benefit. It is
a 3 year plan with a fixed premium. The
unique 6 in 1 plan provide life cover, hospital
cash, surgical benefit, post hospitalisation
benefit, critical illness cover and accidental
permanent disability (partial and total).
The benefits of this plan would be available
for hospitalisation in any registered hospital
with 15 beds across the country.
IRDA to introduce strict
licensing norms
IRDA is expected
to recommend amendments to the Insurance
Bill. The Bill may be tabled in the winter
session of Parliament. The regulator is
slated to submit its final recommendations
to introduce stringent licensing process
for insurance agents. The IRDA is under
pressure from industry to do away with the
100 hrs training but make the final exam
stricter. The insurance industry has also
suggested to IRDA to allow freedom and flexibility
to the companies to fix remunerations for
their respective agents. At present, the
remuneration of the agents is totally commission
based.
IRDA may allow Composite
insurance policies for micro insurance
In India micro-insurance is defined by
the size of the policy (Rs 5,000-Rs 50,000
sum assured) and covers health, household,
fire and motor insurance portfolios that
are non-commercial or of lower asset value.
IRDA will soon issue broad guidelines to
integrate life and general insurance.
As per the new regulation, individual companies
will now be allowed to design composite
products within broad parameters. They will
be branded as micro-insurance products for
`file and use'. A single agency system can
sell these packaged composite products.
The new micro-insurance regulations on
the anvil allow cross-selling of insurance
products by life and general insurance products.
Pending finalisation of the regulations,
the four public sector general insurance
companies are keen on tying up with LIC
in the area of micro-insurance.
MNYL plans to expand
Max New York Life (MNYL), one
of the leading insurance companies, plans
to open 40 more branches in the B &
C category cities of the country within
a couple of years to tap the high growth
sector for existing as well as for new companies.
Ranking Gujarat to be the best destination,
the expansion will take place in Jamnagar,
Vapi and Baroda for offices of the company.
LIC cover for 2 lakh
farm laborers
In a first of its
kind move in Andhra Pradesh, a whopping
two lakh agricultural labourers have been
covered under the social security scheme
of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).
The labourers have been covered under the
Janashree Bima Yojana, launched by the life
insurance behemoth four years ago.
Janashree Bima Yojana is a group insurance
scheme for members in the age group of 18-59
years and involves a premium of Rs 200 per
member annually. The benefits include Rs
20,000 in the case of natural death and
Rs 50,000 in the case of death or permanent
disability due to accident. Of the Rs 200
annual premium that they need to pay, Rs
100 is subsidised from the social security
fund of the central government while the
state government through the district rural
development agency contributes Rs 100.
IRDA to strengthen
inspection mechanism
The
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
is strengthening its inspection mechanism
to keep a closer tab on the business activities
of insurance companies. The regulator is
working on streamlining the process of inspection,
said C.S. Rao, Chairman, IRDA.
Rao said the regulator would either have
a separate inspection department or depute
nodal officers who deal with actuarial,
investment and accounts matters for the
purpose.
Currently the regulator monitors three
areas viz., investment, market conduct,
and accounts. With respect to investment
norms, inspection is currently outsourced
to chartered accountant firms, which examine
reports and check compliance.
Besides the annual inspection of accounts
furnished by insurance companies, IRDA also
scrutinises market conduct issues as and
when they come up, said Rao.
"We will depute three to four people
for the purpose of inspection," said
Rao.
IRDA studying
online sale of policies
The
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
of India is studying the implications of
Internet selling of insurance products and
will take precautionary measures if needed,
Mathew Verghese, former member, Non-life,
The policies sold on the Net are usually
smaller and less complex such as travel
insurance or personal accident covers. IRDA
was looking at the issues of privacy - where
personal and financial details are submitted,
payment of premium as well as other transactions
on the Internet, said Verghese.
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