The Hindu Business Line : Allianz SE looking at retail banking segment

"We are looking very intensively on whether we should enter the Indian retail banking market," Dr Werner Zedelius, Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE - Insurance Growth Markets, said.

"Looking at the growth patterns of the economy and also the prospects of the banking sector as a whole, we see this as a very attractive opportunity," he said, adding that Allianz is in discussions with "relevant bodies" in the Government including the Reserve Bank of India. He was speaking to newspersons at a conference to announce the group's third joint venture partnership with Bajaj Auto for distribution of financial products. Allianz SE, which has a global revenue base of over 100 billion, has already set up two insurance companies in partnership with Bajaj Auto.

Allianz's interests in retail banking could open up avenues for the Germany-based Dresdner Bank, the banking arm of the group. Dresdner has been mulling over an India foray with an aim to cater to its retail-banking services. The retail-banking foray is envisaged as part of Allianz group's expansion plans in the Asian region. Dresdner is currently positioned as the third largest private sector bank in Germany. The group was originally planning to enter the Indian banking sector only after 2009, when the RBI is expected to review its foreign bank ownership norms.

In 2001, Allianz group took over Dresdner Bank, which had run branch operations in India earlier. Dresdner Bank surrendered its branch licence after withdrawing from the Indian market and now has only a representative office.

Encouraged by its impressive growth in the Indian insurance market, Allianz is now also looking to enter the pension, banking and asset management business in the country.

Dr Zedelius also pitched for raising the FDI limit from 26 per cent to 49 per cent for the insurance sector. "There are three major strategic growth markets for Allianz, India, China and Russia," he said.

Encouraged by the performance of earlier two partnerships Bajaj Auto and Allianz on Friday inked their third joint venture partnership `Bajaj Allianz Financial Distributors Ltd.' The two earlier joint ventures are Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

"This joint venture is spurred by the demand from the customers across the country specifically from non-urban markets to also provide other consumer financial products such as mutual funds, credit cards, home loans, personal loans at their doorstep as we have provided simple, flexible and value for money insurance products and dependable service across the country," the company said.

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