BSE, Ebix sign pact to set up insurance distribution network

Leading bourse BSE today said it has joined hands with Ebix Inc to set up a joint venture firm for building a robust insurance distribution network in India.
Ebix is a leading international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries.
The new venture to be branded as BSE-Ebix intends to deploy an insurance distribution exchange platform which will allow distribution outlets, stock brokers, wealth management advisors and financial institutions among others to sell life and non-life products, BSE said in a regulatory filing.
The venture will utilise the distribution reach of both BSE and Ebix that spans more than 2 lakh outlets across the country.

"We are pleased to team up with Ebix in this venture which has a potential of allowing consumers across the length and breadth of the country, easier and faster access to preserving their wealth through buying insurance and expeditious claims settlement," BSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Ashishkumar Chauhan said.
BSE Investments, a group firm of BSE, and Ebix Fincorp Exchange Pte Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Ebix, signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) today with the goal of revolutionising end-to-end sales and processing of insurance in the country, BSE said.
"With a population of approximately 1.2 billion people and the largest growing middle class in the world, India is set to be a large insurance market -- as wherever people create wealth, they tend to find ways to protect it through insurance," Ebix Group Chairman, President and CEO Robin Raina said.

Ebix recently announced that it intends to invest USD 200 million in India. Besides, the company recently announced four acquisitions in the financial exchange sector.