Reliance Life slashes agent strength

Hires around 7,000 in Q4 after sacking 69,000 agents in Q3.

Reliance Life Insurance, the insurance arm of Reliance Capital, reduced the number of agents by almost a third in the second half of the past financial year.

The reduction came at a time when the insurance industry added 300,000 agents, according to sources in the insurance regulator.

The total number of agents of Reliance Life at the end of September stood at 211,293. By December-end, the numbers were down by 68,450 to 142,843, according to an investor presentation made by the company.

The company, however, hired around 7,000 in the fourth quarter.

Reliance Capital's CEO Sam Ghosh told Business Standard that the company has “terminated the contracts of those agents who failed to give us any business during the last 12 months. This is as a part of our appraisal process. All companies do it — some do it at the end of the quarter but we have decided to do it together. People who have not got a single policy in 12 months will not get you business."

Ghosh said the company would hire more when markets start improving. "Again, this quarter we will add more people and give them six months or a year to perform. If they do not perform, then we follow the same process," added Ghosh.

Most insurance players increase the number of agents in the October-to-March period. The country's largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), added over 180,000 agents, taking the total number to over 1.3 million.

Others like HDFC Standard Life increased the number of agents from 188,000 to 207,000 in the same period. SBI Life Insurance added about 17,000 agents during the second half of the last financial year.

Only ICICI Prudential Life Insurance trimmed its agents by over 5,000.