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Despite negative growth in business, Life Insurance Corporation of India is looking forward to better prospects in the coming days. “September has been good for us and the current fiscal has not been bad either,” said LIC's Executive Director (Marketing), Mr Roy Choudhury.
Asserting that the Corporation's strength has been on selling ‘conventional policies', he said ‘ULIPs have also been doing well this month; but people are hesitant to invest in them as the market is highly volatile.
“People see such linked-insurance plans as an investment, but at LIC, we market insurance,” he reiterated, while maintaining that products such as Jeevan Anand, Jeevan Suraksha, Jeevan Akshaya and Jeevan Arokya, among others, were doing well.
Repositioning products
The Corporation has over 52 products in its kitty and, according to Mr Choudhury, 10-12 of them have been received well by the market. “We are re-positioning some of the products such as Jeevan Anand, endowment plus, pension plus plans and children's products, among others.'
Admitting that it is indeed a product-driven market, the LIC ED said: “We do have some world-class products and there are some more in the pipeline. There is a strong appetite among the younger generation for short-term policies with a single premium and such products have done well.
“Despite the inflationary pressures, there has been no inflation in premiums,” he added.
Health insurance
The Corporation is also emerging strong in the health insurance portfolio. “We will be coming out with some products in the health insurance segment, subject to the insurance regulator's approval,” he said, without divulging details, but adding, “we will, within a short time, position ourselves in the health insurance segment.”
Stressing the need to create a stir in the organisation not just in India but worldwide, he said “the winds of change are blowing everywhere and tomorrow's world would be the world of ‘alternatives'. The stir, therefore, should be towards servicing. Our ‘outstanding claims' ratio is around 2 per cent. We need to further reduce it,” he added.
The organisation recently brought in a consultant for providing a solution to integration of channels, he said, without naming the consultant or throwing light on the findings.
Overseas exposure
On LIC's overseas presence, he said, “we have a strong presence in the Middle East; in Bahrain, we are market leaders.
“The Government is urging us to increase our overseas portfolio, particularly in the neighbouring countries. We have plans to establish large overseas offices, but need the support from the other country as well.”
When pressed further, he said: “We may look at Bangladesh. The international department is exploring this. We have a representative office in Singapore. From Singapore, we will probably look at Thailand and Malaysia. We have separate companies in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius and London.”
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