Canara HSBC OBC Life net dips by 12% to Rs 111 cr in FY17

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance today posted 12 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 111 crore for the financial year 2016-17.
"We have been investing in technology as well as product development to ensure that the long term vision is fulfilled," Canara HSBC OBC Life Chief Executive Officer Anuj Mathur told PTI here.
"The above initiatives while have a short term impact on the profitability, however, this is an investment for the future. We are confident of reaping benefits of this in the next couple of years and are targeting a 30 per cent growth in net profit in FY18," he said.

The company's retail on weighted premium income (WPI) grew by 39 per cent at Rs 613 crore during FY17 against Rs 442 crore in the previous financial year.
This is a step towards the company's vision of 1 per cent penetration of customer base of the distributor banks and 1 million customers by 2020, it said.
The private insurer witnessed 9 per cent growth in renewal business at Rs 1,312 crore in 2016-17, from Rs 1,201 crore in 2015-16.

Further, the company has improved its persistency to 83 per cent at a portfolio level, it said.
The company has maintained its operating expense ratio at 14 per cent.

The private insurer's assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 11,280 crore as on March 31, 2017.
Its claims settlement ratio was at 95.53 per cent in FY17 against 92.99 per cent in FY16.
"Our company continues on a profitable growth trajectory. We are positive about the opportunity that the country provides and are taking steps to ensure that we provide customised solutions to each segment," Mathur said.
He said the company will continue to expand and grow bancassurance channel, which has a lot of untapped potential.
Canara HSBC OBC Life will launch a POS product in the first half of FY18, which will be enabled through Aadhar-based e-KYC authentication for paperless proposal with no medical underwriting, and will be fully integrated with the partner bank systems for ease of sale.

Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance is jointly owned by public sector banks - Canara Bank (holding 51 per cent) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (23 per cent) - and HSBC Insurance (Asia Pacific) Holdings (26 per cent), the Asian insurance arm of global banking and financial services groups - HSBC.