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OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance has bagged Oil India Ltd's Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance and credit term cover for employees availing of housing loans.
These were earlier with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. There was intense competition from six other life insurers including SBI Life Insurance Company along with LIC, said the company associate vice president (group sales) Sandip Shrinkhande.
"Our proactiveness and ability to offer excellent services even in remote location like Duliajan in North East, where the field headquarters are located was among the decisive factors favouring OM Kotak," said Shrinkhande.
Indian insurance companies are tapping large sized corporates, looking at the immense potential in this sector. The penetration levels of group insurance in India are less than 10 per cent while that in the US is around 60 per cent. Identifying it as potential for faster growth, private insurance companies are also aggressively targeting the group insurance segment.
A number of large sized deals have taken place in group insurance with Tata AIG Life Insurance Company having struck one of the single largest deals covering 17,226 employees of the GE Group of Companies in India for a total sum assured of Rs 1,865 crore (Rs 18.65 billion).
The life insurer had earlier covered also covered 15,930 employees of Wipro Ltd for a total sum assured of Rs 876 crore (Rs 8.76 billion). Again in the IT sector, LIC had sold a group insurance policy to Infosys Technologies covering its 13,000-odd employees for a sum assured of Rs 1,300 crore (Rs 13 billion) last year.
Indian insurers are following the international trend in group insurance business. LIC has seen a massive increase in group business amounting to Rs 3,612 crore (Rs 36.12 billion) for the fiscal ending March 2004.
This reflected a 119 per cent rise over the preceding fiscal, covering 50 per cent more lives over the previous year.
Group insurance is seen as beneficiary for insured employees as group policy covers wider risk parameters, with discounted premium and requires no medical tests.