The Hindu Business Line : Syndicate Bank plans bancassurance arm

SYNDICATE Bank, which had earlier announced its plan to enter into general insurance products distribution, is mulling over setting up a subsidiary for the purpose. No details have been worked out as the bank is still in the process of evaluating the options. The bank hopes to launch the new business by March.

Indicating this at a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Michael Bastian, Chairman and Managing Director, said the board had approved the plan to sell products of general insurers. It had recently forayed into distribution of life insurance products.

He said a fully-owned subsidiary would be set up if the bank chose to distribute products of multiple insurance companies. Depending on the revenue potential in selling one company's product or products of different companies in different regions, a final decision would be taken.

Asked whether any company had been identified, Mr Bastian said preliminary discussions had been held with four general insurance companies in the public sector and a few private sector companies, including Tata AIG, Royal Sundaram and Reliance.

The bank in the last 16 months had witnessed an accretion of Rs 11,000 crore to its global business.

It has no plan to add to its sole overseas branch, located in London. At best, it would open representative offices, he said.

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