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Aegon Life Insurance Company Ltd (Aegon Life) is eyeing over 100 per cent growth in the number of policies sold and premium income earned through the online channel this year, a top official said.
This private life insurer, who is now only focused on the online channel, wants to be a leading player in digital insurance, mainly focused on term covers, Martijn De Jong, Chief Digital Officer, Aegon Life Insurance, told BusinessLine here.
There is no looking back having taken the plunge into digital, he said. More than 50 per cent of Aegon Life's sales this fiscal are forecasted to be directly digital, according to Martijn. A large part of this will come through the O-2-O model (online generated and offline completed).
It may be recalled that Aegon Life had done away with both the agency and bancassurance channels and decided to focus only on the digital channel.
"We want to keep playing a leading role in the digital channel. We see big growth and expect disruptions on multiple dimensions -- in pricing, user experience and distribution levels," he said.
Last year was basically a year of transition, but this year Aegon Life expects to make up for it.
Martijn said Aegon expects the Indian life insurance market to fundamentally change in the coming days, although it may not happen overnight. "We have a long-term view. Aegon believes digital will be a dominant channel not only in India but in other markets as well".
E-COMMERCE
On distribution levels, Martijn sees scope for Robo Advisory and e-commerce players/ payment banks emerging as alternate channels.
Asked if Aegon Life was looking to tie up with e-commerce firms or payment banks for expanding distribution, Martijn did not elaborate, but said: "As a minimum, we may look at it".
"One could potentially see e-commerce firms or payment banks coming into the picture, but I can't comment on concrete partnerships".
In markets like China, insurers are already riding on e-commerce firms to expand their market share. While this is yet to become a trend in India, there may be some movement in that direction in the coming days, say insurance industry observers.
Meanwhile, Martijn also said Aegon Life already has 10-20 per cent market share in the online term insurance market.
On the impact of demonetisation on the company's sales, he said the month of May saw a strong rise in volumes, although April saw a slight fall.
"Indicators point to a bump up in volumes", he said.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Martijn said Aegon Life was looking to improve on technology and would run two Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects. Aegon Life would be a pilot market and focus on two areas of Automatic Underwriting and Marketing Optimisation. Currently, Aegon is working on about 20 AI projects worldwide. "As on date, we are into AI but have not deployed anything yet".
DYNAMIC PRICING
Martijn also said Aegon Life -- as and when IRDA permits -- would look at dynamic pricing and see if customers could be rewarded for online buying. As on date, insurance regulator IRDA does not allow dynamic pricing even for the online channel. "We will look to convince the regulator that rewarding customers should be allowed".
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