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KOLKATA, June 20

BIRLA Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd, the 74:26 joint venture between the AV Birla Group and Sun Life Financial of Canada, expects to finalise its partners for bancassurance within the next few months.

Announcing this at a press conference here, Mr Nani B. Javeri, Chief Executive Officer of the company, in the city to mark the launch of a new scheme on group superannuation plan, said the company was in talks with both public and private sector banks for bancassurance. It may be noted that Birla Sun Life already has similar arrangements with Citibank and Deutsche Bank.

``The arrangements with the banks will be formulated after studying the strengths of these banks. It will be either a national player or a strong regional one. These arrangements will help us gather more business in future'', Mr Javeri said.

After creating a direct sales force comprising of 2,000 agents, whom the company calls advisors, Birla Sun Life Insurance is now concentrating on a second set of marketing arrangements. This will comprise corporate advisors, direct marketing, group insurance and bancassurance.

According to Mr Javeri, the company is expecting 55 per cent of the total business from the agents and the balance 45 per cent from other sources. The group superannuation plan of Birla Sun Life provides for a retirement fund to purchase annuities on the life of members on their retirement. Further term insurance can be added to the plan to enhance its benefits.

The members can choose from three fund options, Secure Fund, Stable Fund and Growth Fund. The members will also have the option of switching from one to another, anytime during the tenure of the fund.

Birla Sun Life has already initiated dialogue with a number of corporate houses, including the AV Birla Group, for selling this group superannuation plan. Mr Javeri, however, declined to comment further.

During 2001-02, the company has registered a business with a total sum assured of Rs 1,600 crore and annual premium income of Rs 36 crore.

The company sold approximately 20,000 policies and it covered more than 33,000 lives.

Against the mandatory seven per cent rural business, Birla Sun Life registered 12 per cent business from this sector.

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