The Life Insurance Corporation of India, the country's largest insurer, is pulling out all stops to mop up Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) through Jeevan Aastha, a single-premium product which offers at least 9 per cent guaranteed returns, in an attempt to reverse the trend of falling sales.
Most mutual fund players and life insurance companies are planning to bid for appointment as pension fund managers for all citizens after the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) today decided to seek expression of interest from prospective fund managers.
Move to provide insurance up to Rs 1,000 cr from Rs 750 cr now.
Paresh Parasnis, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company's principal officer and executive director spoke to Shilpy Sinha & Sidhartha about the company's strategy.
The regulator has asked the insurance companies to disclose their investment details for the September-November period of the current year. While seeking the information earlier this month, Irda had warned that insurers failing to submit the data would face penal action.
At a time when financial institutions are in the process of cutting costs through retrenchment, the country's largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India, has drawn up plans to hire over 10,000 employees and around 250,000 insurance agents across the country.
With terror attack claims likely to wipe out over 70 per cent of the Rs 700-crore (Rs 7 billion) terror pool, insurers are expected to chip in with additional funds to replenish the corpus and raise the premium paid for terrorism insurance.
Insurance industry is gearing up to clear claims from the attack on Mumbai even as many of the injured are finding it tough to produce the required documents.
A committee headed by Irda's member actuary R Kannan has suggested a grace period of 15 days for policyholders who pay premium on a monthly basis, while a 30 days grace period will be available to those who pay their premium annually, half-yearly or quarterly.
At a time when the global banking industry is feeling the pinch of the global credit crunch, Central Bank of India is planning to expand its foreign presence.
The bank approached RBI for the second time in August this year. The erstwhile development financial institution had approached the regulator in 2007 to get into the private equity business. While no formal proposal was moved, RBI had then advised the bank to concentrate on its upcoming life insurance business. Its joint venture with Fortis and Federal Bank is now up and running.
As the tides of investments change over time, venture capital funds are shifting their focus to businesses related to consumer demand such as education, media and entertainment, food & beverages and alternative energy.
According to the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India, the growth was significantly higher than the 24.51 per cent rise in the value of plastic money transactions in 2006-07 and was partly attributed to banks encouraging people to use cards for transactions. In recent months, banks have increasingly put in place schemes, like cash-back offers, to entice people to use more of debit cards.
Instead of training executives at a time when delinquency rates are rising across segments, lenders have approached industry body Indian Banks' Association and IIBF to lower the fees, which are in the range of Rs 6,000-8,000 for every agent. Bankers said they were finding it difficult to keep employees and agents away from work for 15 days when they undergo the 100-hour training and certification programme mandated by the RBI.
With each form costing Rs 250, the bank has raked in around Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million).
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