Sbi Life Confident Of Standing Up To Sector Boss Lic

SBI Life Insurance Company is confident of taking on the sector's king, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Janki Ballabh, SBI Life Insurance chairman, feels tapping the rural and economically weak sections of the country, which have not been adequately covered yet, provides SBI Life the opportunity to take on the behemoth.

At the same time, State Bank of India (SBI), the major promoter of SBI Life along with Cardif SA, proposes to venture into the general insurance business as well, "once the life insurance company stabilises", said Ballabh.

Interestingly, the parent SBI is not averse to selling general insurance products of other players, once corporate agency regulations are in place.

Speaking at the launch of SBI Life's two new insurance products on Wednesday, Ballabh said that the company's thrust would be on bancassurance.

SBI Life has been asked to make products for SBI to offer to its customers. In the pipeline, SBI Life is working on introducing deposit-linked life insurance to protect the bank's term deposit holders. Term deposits account for 60 per cent of the bank's deposits.

On account of the uncertainty in corporate agency regulations, SBI Life has had to rework the business numbers and its plan. The idea is to recruit 1,000 direct agents by the end of the fiscal against the current 200.

SBI Life chief executive officer and managing director, R Krishnamurthy, said that recruitment of agents was started late.

However, SBI Life is preparing for the day when corporate agents are allowed to sell products. Ballabh said: "We are preparing the infrastructure in terms of training and orienting bank employees involved in the selling of bank products, as insurance products need to be combined with bank products".

Meanwhile, SBI Life has launched two new single premium products -- Sukhjeevan and Young Sanjeevan -- with another two -- Scholar money back guarantee and a group insurance product -- awaiting approval from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority.

Since SBI Life launched its first product 'Sanjeevan' in mid June, it has sold 320 policies with a total sum assured of Rs 6 crore, said Ballabh.

"The main sale will start when we can utilise SBI and its associate 14,000 strong bank branches," he added. From Day 1, SBI will start selling the insurance products, as it leverages its clientele.