IndiaFirst Life Insurance, a joint venture between Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank and Legal and General (UK), aims to double the number of insured customers in the next couple of years.
IndiaFirst Life Insurance MD and CEO R M Vishakha said, “We have a dual strategy of protection and investment across the customer segments of HNI (high net worth individual), mass market and micro insurance. We insured over 93,000 customers during FY 2016, and 46,000 customers till the half-year ended September 2016. We hope to double the number of insured customers in the next couple of years.”
“We have plans of 30% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth across segments, with special focus of 40% on retail. We are adequately capitalised and do not see any immediate requirement for the current fiscal. We intend to leverage existing distribution partners and in parallel bring in additional distribution capabilities through channel partners,” Vishakha added.
When asked about targets, Vishakha said, “We had a gross premium of close to Rs 2,000 crore last year, and are attempting to repeat, if not exceeding that number. We will continue our balanced focus on retail, protection and funds, and allow AUM (assets under management) to grow by following our core business strategy.”
Gross premium
IndiaFirst is a young company and has been operational since 2010. It has crossed Rs 1,000 crore of gross collected premium as of September 30, 2016, against Rs 726 crore in September 2015, with a growth of 43% (Y-o-Y).
The current growth in retail APE (annual premium equivalent) business is 79% (Y-o-Y), as on September 2016 against 14% (Y-o-Y), as on September 2015. IndiaFirst Life Insurance has secured five million lives in over six years of its operations since 2010.
When asked about its expansion plans, Vishakha said, “IndiaFirst is a Bancassurance with across 10,000 touch points, we aspire to continue strengthening our distribution channels. Given our banking partners Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank, West and South of the country are important markets for us and we will focus on strengthening our presence and customer service in Karnataka and other regions of South India.”
When asked on the challenges faced, Vishakha said, “Challenges are a part of the journey and there would be no success if there were no challenges to overcome. One of the big opportunities for us to drive the protection strategy was the PMJJBY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) social security scheme. The charge of Stamp Duty that was not included in pricing and the adverse claims ratio on the scheme have been a setback.”
“However, I firmly believe every challenge is an opportunity. Given the need of the hour for the Insurance industry to make insurance not only affordable, but also accessible and attractive for the mass market, IndiaFirst has embarked on a journey to provide fairly priced, simple, comprehensive and efficiently serviced insurance for the mass market.”
“We consciously participated actively in the financial inclusion scheme promoted by government of India. PMJJBY is a bank account which is linked to group term assurance cover, with a fixed premium of Rs 330 and cover of Rs 2,00,000.
“Overall claims borne by IndiaFirst in the first year of this product is nearly Rs 104.42 crores while the premium earned of PMJJBY is mere Rs 68 crores. This clearly speaks that even though we have incurred losses through PMJJBY, we strongly believe in our core value of impacting society positively,” Vishakha added.
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