Icici Lombard To Hawk Risk Cover Via Internet

The seven-month old ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company intends to capitalise on the Internet distribution channel and will be among the first to sell its range of insurance products over the web. Since it commenced operations in October last year, ICICI Lombard has written business of Rs 70 crore, of which Rs 43 crore came in the last two months of operations as corporates renewed their insurance covers.

ICICI Lombard is currently selling policies through its 500-agency force and the call centre. It will expand its distribution arm to hawk products using the web in the next couple of months.

This gains importance especially when ICICI Lombard seeks to change the present ratio where 85 per cent of the business comes from corporates and barely 15 per cent from the retail sector.

"Traditional feet on the street cannot take care of small-sized policies," said ICICI Lombard managing director Sandeep Bakhshi. When the cost of acquisition is 40 to 50 per cent, it is not necessarily a viable proposition.

"Retail will be a key element of our business strategy especially since retail debt offerings have seen a huge growth rate," Bakhshi stated.

The first two months of a fiscal usually contributes 30-35 per cent of the full year's insurance business for general insurance companies as majority of corporate renewals fall due in the months of April and May.