City Union Bank (CUB) and Shriram General Insurance, on Friday, signed a corporate agency agreement, where the bank will distribute the latter’s insurance products through its network of 727 branches across India.

Under this agreement, Shriram General Insurance will offer personal lines of insurance products such as motor, personal accident, home and travel, along with commercial lines of insurance products such as property, marine and engineering insurance to the bank’s customers. The agreement will help deliver enhanced customer experience by leveraging technology and augmenting the services distributed by the bank, says a release.

N Kamakodi, MD & CEO, City Union Bank, told newspersons: “We are of firm belief that this partnership will certainly bring the best of non-life insurance products to our customers.”

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has permitted banks to have tie-ups with three companies each for general insurance, life insurance and health insurance. The bank has now entered in to a tie-up with Shriram Insurance. Originally, the bank had a tie-up with broking firm, Bharat Re Insurance Brokers (of Shriram Group), to deal with customers and ascertain the risks and claim settlement. However, this is not there anymore.

The bank had a tie-up with LIC for life insurance and with Start Health for health insurance. For general insurance, the bank has now joined hands with Shriram General Insurance, and soon will sign an agreement with Royal Sundaram.

For life insurance, along with LIC, the bank will have two more tie-ups — Bajaj and Tata AIG. For health insurance, the bank will have tie-ups with Aditya Birla and Care Insurance. Of these six tie-ups, four are being signed today and on Monday, and the other two before the month-end, he said.

Anil Kumar Aggarwal, MD & CEO, Shriram General Insurance, said this is a strong relationship with the bank for the future. “Through this tie-up, we will provide the best services to the customers of CUB. By leveraging technology, we will ensure digital, instant, and seamless insurance experience to the Bank’s urban as well as rural customers,” he added.

“Whatever we have done in Shriram General Insurance for small operators, where turnaround time for the claims settlement has reduced to 24 days from one-half-years a decade back, we will replicate the same thing in CUB. It is a win-win situation for both organisations,” he said. “By using technology, we want to further reduce the claims settlement to around 20 days,” he added.

A company official said during December 2021, as part of a restructuring exercise, the group announced the merger of all credit businesses under one umbrella to create India’s largest retail NBFC. Shriram Capital, which is the holding company of the group, is getting merged with Shriram Transport Finance. The stake held by Shriram Capital in life and general insurance businesses will now be transferred into separate entities.

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