Canara HSBC Life Insurance is aiming for 25 per cent growth in individual weighted premium income in the current fiscal, its MD & CEO Anuj Mathur has said.

This will be higher than the 21 per cent growth in individual WPI recorded in 2022-23 at ₹ 1,658 crore (₹ 1,375 crore).

“We are looking for decent growth again this fiscal and we are projecting growth upwards of 25 per cent. This new business growth will also be higher than industry”, Mathur told businessline here.

Canara HSBC Life Insurance had in 2022-23 recorded profits for 11th straight year at ₹ 100 crore.  It had for last fiscal paid dividends, which was the second consecutive year of dividend payouts.

Mathur highlighted that awareness about life insurance has gone up — especially post Covid-19 and non-par as a segment is growing on the back of increased offtake and inclination for guaranteed products.

“Last year also we had good growth in non-par side. This year also we are expecting the same. Guaranteed products are finding good appetite in customer segments. Industry is also doing well and there is good traction. Propensity to buy is increasing in the life insurance industry. Financialisation of savings is also happening”, he added.

The optimism is coming from the expectation that life insurance industry would continue to grow and Canara HSBC Life will be able to do much better than industry as it did last year.

Bancassurance

Mathur noted that bancassurance would continue to be the company’s engine of growth and strategic initiatives are being taken to plumb deep into promoter shareholder Canara Bank’s huge customer base.

Canara Bank, which has a 51 per cent stake in Canara HSBC Life Insurance, has nearly ten crore customer base and a branch network of over 9,600 branches.

HSBC has a 26 per cent stake, while the remaining 23 per cent is with PNB, which had subsumed Oriental Bank of Commerce under a three-way amalgamation.

Asked as to where this optimism for surpassing last year growth came from, Mathur said 

“ As I mentioned to you in June last year, we are looking to double our penetration there (Canara bank customer base) from the 1.5 per cent levels to 3 per cent over the next three years. This journey is very much on track. If I include PMJJBY, we are now already at 4 per cent. Our goal remains to touch 2-3 percent (without PMJJBY) in three years”, Mathur said.

Focus areas

Mathur said that company is also looking to enhance its play in pension and annuity segment (retirement solutions). Canara HSBC Life is also looking to leverage on analytics to improve penetration among Canara Bank customers. The life insurer will also focus on providing protection to the loans extended by Canara Bank, he added.

“Our strategy is to penetrate into mass market now. There is huge potential given the Canara Bank customer base. Getting into mass market, using analytics and looking at retirement solutions are the strategic levers for us”, he said.

Canara HSBC Life Insurance already has retirement products, but is now looking to focus in the space with better proposition for a specified age group in certain segments. “We have seen that the age of fifty years plus is a segment where people are keen to go in for retirement solutions. We are targeting that segment to penetrate deeper there”, Mathur said. 

Mathur, however ruled out any plans to set up a separate subsidiary to become a separate pension fund manager.

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