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ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is optimistic about growth opportunities this fiscal despite the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that has impacted many lives and livelihood.
“Our aspiration of doubling the value of new business (VNB) growth by 2020-23 is guided by APE growth or overall topline premium growth. We need to typically grow at 25 per cent to 28 per cent on VNB annually for next two years,” said Amit Palta, Chief Distribution Officer, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, adding that margin expansion now has limited scope for growth.
In an interaction with BusinessLine , Palta said the insurer registered its best ever month in March 2021, but growth was impacted from the second-half of April as the Covid-19 case load spread.
However, there has been improvement in the last few weeks of May.
Also read: Budget proposal has not affected ULIP segment of ICICI Pru Life: MD and CEO
According to IRDAI data, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance registered a 38.55 per cent growth in first year premium in the first two months of the fiscal upto May 31, 2021 though it declined by 3.93 per cent for the month of May 2021.
Palta said he expects growth to continue based on the additional width in distribution the insurer has set up, a positive environment and the momentum in insurance sales that was seen from the second half of 2020-21.
The insurer added over 100 partnerships last fiscal, which it believes will help distribution and spur growth.
Bancassurance partnerships
In terms of bancassurance partnerships, it tied up with IndusInd Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, IDFC First Bank, RBL Bank and NSDL Payments Bank. It also tied up with distributors including PhonePe and Wealth India Financial Services as well as insurance broking entities —BSE EBIX and Magnum Insurance Broking.
“These partnerships have enabled us to increase our distribution footprint. Specifically, our 23 bancassurance partnerships have enabled us to expand our reach to 16.2 crore bank customers with a footprint of about 12,000 branches,” Palta said.
Partnerships with IndusInd Bank, IDFC First Bank, AU Small Finance Bank and RBL Bank are significant for the insurer. “We got them operational towards the last quarter and we see them as contributing to our growth vision,” Palta said.
About 33 per cent of the business for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance comes from ICICI Bank and another 11 per cent from bancassurance tie-ups with other banks.
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