Bank of Baroda's risk venture may break even by '15

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) today said that its insurance venture IndiaFirst Life Insurance that became operational four months ago would break even by 2015.

“We will expect this (IndiaFirst Life Insurance) company to break even by the next five years,” BoB Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya said after inaugurating a GenNext branch here.

Mallya, who is also the chairman of the life insurance venture, said the company mopped up about Rs 250 crore since it commenced operations in November 2009.

IndiaFirst Life Insurance, the 23rd player in the life insurance space, is a three-way joint venture between Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank and their British partner Legal & General.

Of the Rs 330-crore equity capital of IndiaFirst, BoB holds 44 per cent, Andhra Bank 30 per cent and the rest 26 per cent — the maximum permissible foreign direct investment limit in the sector — is with the British partner.

The insurance products are available at 1,750 branches of BoB and Andhra Bank across the country now. The insurer plans to expand its distribution to all 4,500 branches (combined branch strength of BoB and Andhra Bank) by the end of this year, he said.

BoB has 3,050 branches, some of which are overseas, while Andhra Bank has 1,544 branches across the country.

The company plans to initially focus on the bancassurance model, leveraging the existing customer base of the promoter banks, he said. The two banks have about five crore customers.