Sbi Life To Focus On Corporates

SBI Life Insurance Company will have to limit its sale of policies initially to the corporate sector till bancassurance is allowed to take off.

Pending the government permitting the sale of insurance products through corporate agents, SBI Life is unable to tap the vast branch network of State Bank of India (SBI), which is the largest in the world.

"Today our focus is on corporates because the only option possible for us is through direct selling," said R Krishnamurthy, SBI Life's chief executive officer and managing director.

SBI Life is yet to recruit an agency force, and is at present relying on its 45-strong employees for the sale of products.

 

"We plan to offer term assurance with riders to select corporates, which would be tailored to meet their specific requirements," said Krishnamurthy. SBI Life, which is on a recruiting spree for agents, proposes to introduce endowment and money-back policies by the time its agency force is ready, he added.

The insurance company, a joint venture between SBI and Cardif, will recruit 100 agents in each of the four metros and 30-50 agents in smaller cities.

Further, in a move to push up credit flows to the weaker sections, SBI Life plans to tie up with self-help groups assisted by the banking sector, to offer them pure term assurance cover. At the same time, SBI Life is in talks with regional rural banks to act as its corporate agents with regulations permitting.

The size of the cover will be small and in proportion to the actual size of borrowings by individuals in these self-help groups.

"Such insurance benefit will be a major protection for the borrower as well as for the bank. Collaterialising the risk through the insurance cover will step up the credit to these groups," said Krishnamurthy.

It will channalise the credit and spur the credit offtake as the credit assessing system gets a boost, he added. SBI Life will not limit the product to SBI's customers, but proposes to tailor it to meet the needs of all banks.