IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd (IndiaFirst Life) expects a nearly 50 per cent jump in its retail new business premium (NBP) this fiscal to ₹1,000 crore, as it rides on the banca benefits flowing from the merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with one of the life insurer’s promoters, Bank of Baroda (BoB), said a top official.

This life insurer, which has Bank of Baroda as one of its promoters with 44 per cent stake, has from April 1 got into its fold additional 4,000 bank branches (Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank’s branch network in aggregate) where it could potentially distribute its products.

From April 1 itself, the number of bank branches that the life insurer can use for its bancassurance channel has grown from 8,500 (BoB and Andhra Bank) to 12,500 branches.

“With the added strength of bank branches network that we can tap, we are now targeting a retail new business premium of ₹1,000 crore this fiscal”, Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life, told BusinessLine here. This would translate into a nearly 50 per cent growth over the retail NBP of ₹681 crore recorded in 2017-18.

Already in the first two months this fiscal (April and May), the NBP from erstwhile Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank branches has touched ₹10 crore, accounting for over 10 per cent of the total NBP of ₹75 crore recorded by the life insurer during these two months.

“Our efforts on product innovation will also help in achieving the ₹1,000 crore retail NBP mark”, said Gandhi.

Gandhi also said that IndiaFirst Life had an embedded value of ₹1,184 crore as at end March 31, 2019.

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