The Hindu Business Line : National Insurance ties up with Bharat Overseas Bank

THE National Insurance Company Ltd, which has pipped United India to the second slot in terms of premium income during the first two months of the current fiscal, has signed a MoU with Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd (BhOB) for distribution of its general insurance products.

National Insurance already has tie-ups with City Union, Indian Overseas Bank, Allahabad Bank and Vijaya Bank.

Addressing newspersons after the formal exchange of documents, Mr H.S. Wadhwa, CMD of National Insurance, said the tie-up between the two institutions was aimed at providing value-added services in the form of personal line of insurance products to the large base of customers of BhOB. Asked on the expected premium income from this new tie-up, Mr Wadhwa said he expected at least Rs 500 crore in 2003-04.

Unveiling the initial business plan, Mr G. Krishna Murthy, Chairman, BhOB, said in the first year of operations, National Insurance would be covering assets worth Rs 1,500 crore financed by the bank. The bank (with total business crossing Rs 3,000 crore in the last fiscal) was now on a ``high growth trajectory'', he pointed out. ``This is an important step towards making BhOB a financial supermarket, as envisaged in the bank's programme of Vision 2006.''

Mr Wadwa said National Insurance had clocked a premium income of Rs 2,900 crore during 2002-03, registering a growth of 23 per cent, said to be the highest among PSU general insurers. He put the accretion to the premium base at 54 per cent, catapulting it into the third position, after New India and United India. Pointing out that the focus in the current fiscal would be on tie-ups with banks, he put the premium growth during April-May in the current fiscal at 11 per cent.

Mr Murthy said the bank already had 80 branches, and would be opening 45 more within the next two years to cope up with the fresh spurt in para-banking activities. ``Technology upgradation is our source of strength, and we are into new businesses like debit cards, mutual funds, and even life insurance products, for which we have a tie-up with ING Vysya.'' On business focus, he said Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad would be the key hubs, ``and with IT in command, we intend to focus on SMEs in a big way''.

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