• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

HDFC Standard Life to target low, middle income groups

Our Bureau

MUMBAI, Jan. 18

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd plans to target low and middle income retail customers for its insurance products.

The private insurer proposes to concentrate on secondary and tertiary towns so as to widen its reach to encompass a larger percentage of the population.

``Our studies have shown that there is a high level of economic activity in these towns and the potential for encouraging savings exists,'' said Mr Deepak Satwalekar, Managing Director & CEO, HDFC Standard Life, at the inauguration of the company's corpo rate office in Mumbai on Thursday.

With regard to metros, the company proposes to offer its products to customers in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Calcutta followed by a presence in seven towns over the next three quarters.

Mr Satwalekar said the company was looking to strengthen its relationship with over 90 NGOs. HDFC has worked with these NGOs in providing housing finance and more recently micro-finance to their constituents whether they were in rural areas or in urban s lums.

``Over the past several months we have had several rounds of discussions with these NGOs to determine the most suitable products that we should offer. We are already in discussions for providing insurance cover to over a 1,000 economically weaker section families residing in Karnataka as an add-on to the low interest housing loans being provided by HDFC,'' he said.

Mr Satwalekar said the company would look at health insurance going forward. ``Today the only way we can cover health is via the `critical illness' cover. The infrastructure as regards the health insurance industry is not in place. For instance if you lo ok at the UK model, there you have the national health service. Your health records are transferred whenever you move from one doctor to another. So the insurance company is sure about the information on your health history. In India, you don't,'' he exp lained.

Emphasising its role as a customer-centric organisation the company also launched its Web-page -- www.hdfcinsurance.com on Thursday. ``The Web platform will permit us to service our dual customer base -- one, the financial consultant who distributes our products and two, the end-customer who buys our products,'' he said.

While the company has a strong distribution network in place, it was felt that distribution capacity could be enhanced with the entry of multiple providers such as banks.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance's initial business centres on two basic products -- Endowment Assurance Policy and Money Back Policy -- with four disparate built-in riders capable of spawning 14 pre-packaged products for flexibility.

In Phase 2, the company plans to introduce unit-linked products and individual pension products. Currently, only group pension products are permitted by law.