Leading private sector life insurer HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd is targeting Rs 100 crore premium from online sales of its insurance products in the current fiscal.
The company is betting big on the online platform to push growth, having launched an array of 15 online products in the last couple of months.
"Our mantra here is to Sell Online, Deliver Online, Service Online. Our Click2Invest plan is a best in class ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Plan) available exclusively for online customers. It is a low cost plan that delivers everything that customers asked of us in terms of features. We also recently launched a new online term plan Click2Protect Plus that has richer features than its previous avatar Click2Protect", Sanjay Tripathy, senior executive vice president (marketing, product, digital and e-commerce) said in an e-mailed response.
The company plans to roll out more products shortly, exclusively for its online customers."To leverage the true disruptive potential that the digital medium offers, it becomes crucial to adapt your systems, processes and personnel to best suit its unique demands. This has led to many insurers to adopt, and rightly so, a vertically integrated SBU (strategic business unit) like structure to ensure a dedicated focus that allows for agility, responsiveness and efficient scale up. We were the first ones to do this", said Tripathy.
Commenting on HDFC Life's premium growth, he said, "Total premium (in April-September period) grew by 21 per cent compared to the previous year, aided by all-round growth in first year individual premium (28 per cent), individual renewal premium (17 per cent) and group premium (21 per cent). The company maintained a balanced product mix during this period".
In 2013-14, total premium collected by the company grew by seven per cent over the previous year to Rs 12,063 crore.HDFC Life has wiped off its accumulated losses in the first quarter (April-June) of 2014-15 and has posted a net profit of Rs 454 crore in the April-September period and an accumulated surplus of Rs 220 crore by the end of September.The life insurance industry in the country is projected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12-15 per cent in the next five years and insurance penetration levels are expected to rise to five per cent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2020 from the current level of 3.2 per cent.
HDFC Life has ranked among the top three players in the private sector since 2009-10 on individual new business basis. The company's market among private sector life insurers has gone up from nine per cent in FY 10 to 14 per cent in FY 14.
The company recently forayed into the health insurance segment with the HDFC Health Assure Plan.
src:sify.com