Cos eye insurance distribution

The Indian companies would distribute and market insurance products of different insurance companies to leverage their domestic network and corporate reputation. HDFC has a tie-up with Standard Life Assurance for entering the life insurance business. But it is planning to distribute and market non-life insurance for other companies. It has a network of 34 offices across the country which it will utilise for the same.

“There will be no conflict of interest with our partner. And we can have exclusive arrangements with different companies for separate categories on general insurance products,” says HDFC’s managing director Deepak Satwalekar. For HDFC not only will this move be profitable, it would also be synergistic. Satwalekar said, “With our house loans we could also sell home related insurance products like household insurance and burglar insurance.”

Nicco Corporation does not have any tie-up with any foreign insurance company but is planning to distribute insurance products though its joint venture with Uco Bank. Nicco-Uco Finance is an NBFC which has the International Finance Corporation as one the stakeholder. Nicco Corporation’s chairman Rajive Kaul said that his company will distribute life and non-life products through its presence in five major metros of the country.

“We have an deposits from 100,000 people and could develop on this. The Nicco name is well-known in Eastern India and it will be easy for us to sell insurance products,” Kaul said.

Simple distribution and sales is a good option for those companies who do not want to start a insurance joint venture. “This way I can enter the insurance business without having to invest $10 million in a joint venture,” he said.

Another Indian finance company which has a tie-up with a US company for life insurance said that it would be willing to sell non-life insurance for other companies.