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Private sector IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company is confident of a revival in sales and is working out new ways to reach out to customers digitally in the wake of the pandemic..
“Things are limping back to normalcy and unless there is a big second wave of Covid, we will see this continue as a trend. I don’t expect a dramatic improvement,” said Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, adding that people are more keen on buying insurance due to worries about the pandemic.
The insurer saw a spurt in sales of non-participating or guaranteed and protection plans in April and May and said that in June, the sales were getting back to normal. “People are buying ULIPs and participating products again,” Gandhi said, noting that with spending limited to only essentials, people have liquidity to invest in insurance.
The insurer registered 70 per cent de-growth in individual APE in April, which improved marginally to 40 per cent de-growth in May. This has further improved to 10 per cent de-growth in June, Gandhi said.
e-Sampark
To reach out to customers, it has launched a special customer engagement measure called e-Sampark under which webinars are organised at branches of Bank of Baroda for customers. After the webinar, the bank branch team along with the IndiaFirst Life representative lead and conclude the sales process.
“We have received good response to this initiative, which was launched in June and plan to take it forward every month,” Gandhi said.
The life insurer is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India, which hold 44 per cent and 30 per cent stake respectively. Carmel Point Investments India of Warburg Pincus holds the balance 26 per cent stake.
With 90 per cent of its business coming through bancassurance, IndiaFirst Life Insurance is also optimistic that the merger of the erstwhile Andhra Bank with Union Bank will bring in more business.
“It gives us access to over 9,500 branches of Union Bank. We will be working in an open architecture environment, we are excited and bullish,” said Gandhi.
Post amalgamation, Union Bank has said it will offer life insurance products of three insurers — SUD Life Insurance Company, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company and Life Insurance Corporation of India.
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