IndiaFirst Life to Focus on Mass Market Products

IndiaFirst Life Insurance is working on mass market insurance products. The premium for these products will be low and will help the company increase its volumes. These will be sold in a group targeting retail, telecom and other players who need customer retention for their business, said Rushabh Gandhi, director- Sales & Marketing, IndiaFirst Life.

IndiaFirst Life is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda (44%), Andhra Bank (30%) and UK`s risk, wealth and investment brand Legal & General group (26% stake).

“The business was good in last two years. In the future, the focus will be on technology, products and processes that are easier from the customer point of view,” he said adding that the focus this year will be on retirement, savings / investment products.

“We are focusing on mass market products, which we plan to launch in the end of the first quarter or at the beginning of the second quarter this fiscal, subject to regulatory approvals. In addition, we aspire to have a strong presence in liability insurance and children focussed plans,” he said.

The premium will vary with insurance cover combinations- life cover, hospi cash, accident and so on. “These products will help big players like retail chains, telecom or other businesses that have large number of clients. The companies will foot the insurance bill for customer loyalty,” said Gandhi adding that 2016-17 has been the best year for IndiaFirst Life since its inception seven years ago.

The company witnessed a Y-o- Y growth of 82% in individual annualised premium equivalent (APE), with a new retail premium collection of Rs 403 crore by the end of FY 2016-17, as against Rs 221 crore in 2015-16.

In 2016-17, IndiaFirst Life registered total premium collection of Rs 2,266 crore compared to Rs 1,967 crores in 2015-16.

It gets about 90% of the sales from its banking partners - Andhra Bank and BoB and the remaining from agents, digital sales and other channels. “Andhra Bank has done Rs 163 crore, with a majority of it coming from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

Employee benefit business, which is a group business, will be its focus area. It is now doing about Rs 1,000 crore in this segment, he said.

The company has tied up last year with Chennai-based Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) for distribution of its products and the results have been encouraging. It will tie up with more such players, he said.

IndiaFirst improved its 13th month persistency (second premium is usually paid in the 13th month) to 74% this year from the 64% last year. In 2017-18, it hopes to take it close to 80%.

“We are now moving the tele-calling in-house instead of giving it to third parties. We included persistency as a performance indicator for the sales team. It is also doing a pre-issuance validation call to ensure that customers know all aspects of the policy,” he said.

On impact of demonetisation, he said banks have met their current and saving account (casa) targets and have been able to focus on selling insurance products.