LIC gets nod to operate in Bangladesh

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has been allowed to form a joint venture in Bangladesh, becoming the second foreign insurer to operate in the country, officials said on Wednesday.

"We have given LIC a letter of consent upon certain conditions. They will be able to start operations once these are fulfilled," Bangladesh Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) chief M Shefaq Ahmed was quoted as saying by Bdnews24.

He said the Indian state-owned insurer was allowed to start operations as a joint venture entity to be called LIC Bangladesh Ltd with a paid up capital of Taka 1 billion ($1=Tk 80) under a decision taken by the regulator three days ago.

LIC will hold half of the amount while the rest would be owned by its Bangladeshi partners raising the amount from the capital market and local entrepreneurs.

The approval came nearly two years after the IDRA rejected a LIC proposal to launch its business in Bangladesh with a paid up capital of Tk 300 million.

LIC has been in the insurance business for six decades and is worth Rs 15,000 billion.

It became the second foreign insurance agency after the US-based MetLife-ALICO, which only has a branch office in Bangladesh and is not a joint venture registered company. Apart from two state-run insurance companies, Bangladesh currently has 60 insurance companies in private sector, 43 of them being general and 17 life.

According to the report, the IDRA plans to handover its consent letter to LIC Chairman SK Roy during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka on the weekend.