Edelweiss Tokio unveils two endowment plans

Private sector life insurer Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Co Ltd, on Monday, announced the launch of its two endowment plans -- ‘Save n Grow Plan’ and ‘MultiGain Plan’.

In a statement, the insurer said the ‘Save n Grow Plan’ is a participating endowment plan with increasing protection over the policy term and the ‘MultiGain Plan’ is a participating endowment plan with regular cash back. Both these plans address the wealth accumulation needs of a customer and protect the family against any eventuality.

The ‘Save n Grow Plan’ is designed for customers who have a mid-to long-term investment horizon to achieve their long-term goals such as funding for home, child's education and marriage. The plan offers a policy term of 15, 20, 25 and 30 years and the customer has an option of paying premium for only 10 or 15 years or paying it throughout the policy term. On death of a policyholder, his family gets sum assured along with the increasing benefit of 15 per cent of sum assured every 5th year from the policy inception.However, the other plan ‘MultiGain Plan’ is designed for customers with a short-term investment horizon to plan for holidays and buying a car. The plan offers a money back feature as a part of the survival benefits through which a customer receives 20 per cent of the sum assured at an interval of every 1/5th of policy term. On maturity of the policy, customer will receive 20 per cent of the sum assured along with the accrued bonuses. The plan offers a policy term of 20, 25 and 30 years.

Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance is the latest entrant to the life insurance market. It is a joint venture between Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc.

Reliance General Insurance launches mobile payment facility

Reliance General Insurance, a part of Anil Ambani’s led Reliance Capital, on Monday, announced the launch of a new feature which would facilitate customers to pay premiums using mobile phones. The company hopes this would increase productivity by 25 % and sales by 20 %.

The company launched point of sales service using mobile phones - Mobile Point of Sales (MPOS) - which allows customers to pay premium using a mobile phone and eliminates payment-related delays, errors and frauds, a statement said.

Mr. Rakesh Jain, C E O and Executive Director, Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC) said, “With this mobile payment platform, we are providing our customers an additional mode of payment with a view to strengthen our First-Time-Right initiative and eliminate all premium-related irregularities that can be possible with a manual system followed by the industry.”

“With wider usage over a longer period of time, we believe it will help us translate in about 25 per cent increment in sales-force productivity and 20 per cent increase in sales”, he added.

The facility ensures higher level of security and transparency in premium payments with instant confirmation about the transactions through SMS and email.

Any GPRS-enabled touch screen mobile phone can be converted into point of sales terminal, which facilitates card payments, by connecting an external special card reader dongle. RGIC agent will carry the MPOScard reader dongle with their mobile phone to access the application of the bank and initiate premium collection from the customer.

Reliance General Insurance has distributed 1,000 dongles to its agents in the pilot phase. The company plans to equip its sales teams with 5,000 dongles in the next few months to enable wider usage, the company added.

Dhruv Compusoft launches Insurance Grievance Management System for ECGC

A leading information technology, consulting and outsourcing company Dhruv Compusoft Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. has announced that it has launched Insurance Grievance Management System for Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd. (ECGC), which integrates with IRDA's Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) via Web services.

Through a press release the company claimed that four firms in India have implemented Dhruv's IGMS system, and through this engagement, Dhruv will help them in meeting IRDA regulatory requirements relating to IGMS.

P. Prasad, Deputy General Manager, ECGC of India Ltd. said, “Dhruv has successfully implemented IGMS for us and we are happy with their work and knowledge of IRDA's specifications on IGMS and also their continued support.”

In a bid to overhaul the consumer grievance redressal mechanism for the insurance sector, the IRDA has proposed to set up an Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS). Dhruv Compusoft has in turn designed an elegant grievance management system to enable both insurers and the IRDA to synchronize in real-time, while demarcating batches.

With IGMS, policyholders can register and view the status of the grievance filed. Through the new grievance management system, the regulator proposes to create a central database of all complaints flowing in to the insurance grievance redressal mechanism.

Dhruv Compusoft Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. is a Bangalore based leading information technology, consulting and outsourcing company that delivers solutions in area of manufacturing, insurance, financial services, healthcare and not-for-profits. It has offices in India, Singapore and USA.

PNB gets all approvals to acquire 30% stake in MetLife India

County’s leading nationalized bank Punjab National Bank, with reference to earlier announcement on dated July 28, 2011, has now informed BSE that the Bank has received all regulatory approvals including fair trade regulator the Competition Commission of India (CCl) for acquiring 30% stake in Metlife India Insurance Co. Ltd. Now, the Company will be rebranded as PNB Metlife India Ltd.

In its order on December 26, CCI noted that operations of PNB and MetLife India are not similar or identical. "Although PNB provides services to MetLife India as a distribution agent, the share of MetLife India in the business of life insurance is relatively insignificant and is not likely to raise any adverse effect on competition in India," CCI said.

In 2011, PNB had announced picking up of 30 per cent stake or about 60.38 crore shares in MetLife India for an undisclosed amount. Besides, the two entities had reached an agreement following which PNB is acting as an agent of MetLife India for the distribution of its insurance products.

MetLife India is a joint venture between MetLife International (an affiliate of US-based MetLife Inc) and group of Indian investors. Both PNB and MetLife India had approached the fair trade regulator for approval on December 7, 2012.


( Source: InsuringIndia.com )

LIC hikes its stake in Cairn India by 2%

The largest insurer of the country the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India has hikes its stake in Cairn India by 2.064% to 7.088%, according to a notification on Bombay Stock Exchange. The trade was executed through various brokers by a market purchase and was worth Rs 1,283 crore. The total number of shares now being held by LIC in Cairn India now stands at 135,376,217.

The company, however, decreased its stake in pharma company Sanofi India and FMCG Tata Global Beverages. In Sanofi India, it sold about 4.64 lacs shares amounting to a 2.01 per cent stake in the company, diluting its total stake in the company to 3.06 per cent. This sale was carried out between September 18 and December 26.

In Tata Global Beverages, the insurance major sold about 1.28 crore shares (or 2.07 per cent) of the total shares, bringing down its total stake in the company to 7.63 per cent. This sell-off was carried out between August 23 to December 26.

State-run insurance giant is planning to invest Rs 2.4 lacs crore this fiscal year, D.K. Mehrotra, Chairman, LIC said in an interview.

“Our investment is based on the performance of the company vis-à-vis their competitors, market scenario, corporate governance, track record and future earning. We normally do not get influenced by internal happenings,” he added.

Recently, the finance ministry had allowed LIC to hold over 30% stake in any listed company.

Recently, LIC informed the exchanges that it sold over two per cent stake in Maruti Suzuki India over a period of time. After the sale, LIC's total holding in the carmaker reduced to a little over 10 per cent.


( Source: InsuringIndia.com )

LIC unveils two new insurance policies

The largest insurer of the country, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, on Tuesday announced the launch of two new insurance policies, Flexi Plus, a unit linked insurance product and New Jeevan Nidhi, a conventional product with profit pension plan.

In a statement, LIC said that Flexi Plus not only provides a lump sum benefit on death of the policyholder but also the maturity benefit irrespective of survival of the policyholder. Under the policy, the policyholder can choose the amount of premium he/she desires to pay, depending on which equivalent level of cover will be provided. The plan aims at steady income carrying lower to medium risk.

The other product, New Jeevan Nidhi provides death cover during deferment period and offers annuity on survival to the date of vesting.

( Source: InsuringIndia.com )

PNB gets all approvals to acquire 30% stake in MetLife India

County’s leading nationalized bank Punjab National Bank, with reference to earlier announcement on dated July 28, 2011, has now informed BSE that the Bank has received all regulatory approvals including fair trade regulator the Competition Commission of India (CCl) for acquiring 30% stake in Metlife India Insurance Co. Ltd. Now, the Company will be rebranded as PNB Metlife India Ltd.

In its order on December 26, CCI noted that operations of PNB and MetLife India are not similar or identical. "Although PNB provides services to MetLife India as a distribution agent, the share of MetLife India in the business of life insurance is relatively insignificant and is not likely to raise any adverse effect on competition in India," CCI said.

In 2011, PNB had announced picking up of 30 per cent stake or about 60.38 crore shares in MetLife India for an undisclosed amount. Besides, the two entities had reached an agreement following which PNB is acting as an agent of MetLife India for the distribution of its insurance products.
MetLife India is a joint venture between MetLife International (an affiliate of US-based MetLife Inc) and group of Indian investors. Both PNB and MetLife India had approached the fair trade regulator for approval on December 7, 2012.

( Source: InsuringIndia.com )