IndiaFirst Life expects growth in business this year

IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd — promoted by Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Union Bank of India (UBI) — is expecting a flat or a marginal growth in business this year as compared to last year.

According to RM Visakha, MD & CEO, the company had registered 25 per cent growth in business in FY20 on a year-on-year basis because of a number of digital initiatives undertaken during the course of the year.

While the life insurer had witnessed a 40 per cent de-growth in business during the first quarter of this fiscal in the wake of the pandemic, however, in Q2 it had a marginal growth of about one per cent. So, the total degrowth has come down to around 14 per cent for the first half of this fiscal.

“We had ended last year with a 25 per cent year-on-year growth while the industry had clocked a five per cent growth because all our technology investments had paid off. We have always had a stated vision of growing higher than the industry we are continuing to try for that. Considering that we grew by 25 per cent last year so there will be a base effect, so if we can post even a flat or nominal growth rate (this year) we would be satisfied,” Visakha told BusinessLine.

Growing demand

The awareness about the need for insurance, which started gaining ground post introduction of schemes such as PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, has been further enhanced in the wake of the current pandemic.

Protection and guaranteed returns have seen a good demand. “Customer demand will move to guaranteed product and protection product and that is why we launched a comprehensive protection product recently. Our aim has been to anticipate customer demand and we will keep customer preferences in mind (while designing and selling a product),” she said.