BSLI eyes 15% growth in NBP in FY18; launches CritiShield

Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), the life insurance arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), today said it is expecting 15 per cent growth in new business premium in this financial year, at par with the market.
"We expect our growth (NBP) to be about 15 per cent this financial year, at the same level as the industry growth," BSLI Chief Actuarial Officer Anil Kumar Singh told reporters here.
The private insurer is also planning to focus on its digital platform and increase the share of business from this segment to five per cent this year, he said.

"With advancement of technology the digital platform provides immense opportunity. Share of business from digital platform is very minimal currently and we are going to increase it to 5 per cent this year," Singh added.
He said the company has three products in the pipeline, which are submitted to the regulatory for approvals.
"We are planning to launch three products, all under the traditional category, this year. One on income benefit is likely to be launched next month," he said.

The company is focusing on doubling its protection portfolio to 7.5-8.5 per cent this year, BSLI Managing Director and CEO Pankaj Razdan said.

"Last year, the share of our protection portfolio was at 3.8-4 per cent. This year the first quarter looks good and we think we will double our protection portfolio to 7.5-8.5 per cent," he added.
Talking about increase in premium after the implementation of GST, Razdan said it will not be very high but only three per cent.
"The service tax is 15 per cent and the GST has been fixed at 18 per cent. It is not that huge a amount. However, the technological compliance with the new tax system will be very huge amount of work for the insurers," he added.

BSLI also announced the launch of CritiShield Plan, a comprehensive non-participating traditional health insurance plan.
With this launch, the company's bouquet of protection solutions is now at three products and 8-9 riders.
CritiShield is designed to meet cost-effectively the protection and financial security needs of individuals and their families against cardiac or renal illnesses.
"The increasing risk of cardiac and renal ailments, forced us to take note of the situation and empower our customers with a solution to plan their finances against the likelihood of any of these diseases. CritiShield is designed to ensure a financially uninterrupted life for the customer and their families in case of the onset of any cardiac or renal diseases," Razdan said.

CritiShield targets 25,000-30,000 policies in the first year of the launch and is mainly focused on age group of 35-40 years, he said.
BSLI is a joint venture between the leading Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Nuvo and Sun Life Financial Inc, one of the leading international financial services organisations from Canada.