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Richa Mishra

Sees big opportunity in pension market

New Delhi , Sept. 21

In order to strengthen its position further in India, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co has chalked out aggressive strategies including introducing new products and tapping the rural market. Besides tying up with seven regional rural banks (RRBs) sponsored by Syndicate Bank to tap the rural market, the company also proposes to introduce micro-insurance products and come out with a new capital guarantee product.

Mr Heinz Dollberg, Executive Vice-President Asia Pacific, Allianz, told Business Line that the company had already applied to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority for a capital guarantee and pension product.

Pension sector

"We see the pension market as a big opportunity. Except for government employees, there are no old-age security schemes for those over 60 years," he said. There are certain apprehensions, but the company is hopeful that the market would be opened up for the private insurance players.

"This is a much needed step that will not only provide security to the people post-retirement, but also help in the growth of the insurance market in the country," he added. However, no firm plans have yet been drawn up by the company for the pension market in India.

As for the rural market, he said the company had recently tied up with `Godrej Aadhaar' retail chain and also with seven RRBs sponsored by Syndicate Bank. "Besides this, we have tied up with numerous district co-op banks and NGOs to tap the rural market. We are also filing for micro-insurance products as well," he said.

Reiterating that India was a core market for Bajaj Allianz, Mr Dollberg said, "We see a lot of potential. Our performance in India has been better than expected. Generally, a life insurance company takes about seven years to break even while a non-life insurance company takes about five years. As far as we are concerned, our life insurance venture has achieved breakeven in five years, while the non-life insurance has done it in just three years."

In the private life insurance segment, Bajaj Allianz has a market share of 7.6 per cent and 6.4 per cent in the non-life insurance segment. As per the latest IRDA results up till July 2006 the company has achieved a 207 per cent growth rate, he said.

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