Max Life plans to buy equity in bank for JV

MUMBAI: Max New York Life (MNYL) is looking at picking up equity in a bank to form a joint venture (JV) to distribute its insurance products. Gary Bennett, MD and CEO, MNYL, spoke to the media in Mumbai on Friday.

He said that with an aim of strengthening its non-agency distribution network, MNYL is looking at a JV with a bank to increase its distribution through bancassurance, This is in addition to strengthening its other non-agency channels such as corporate agency and the internet.

MNYL has already tied up with 16 co-operative banks and one private sector bank— Yes Bank , to distribute insurance through bancassurance, according to Debashish Sarkar, head of marketing at MNYL. Mr Bennett said that India being an agri-economy, he sees a big business opportunity from rural India as well.

Mr Bennett said that the company ultimately intends to increase its business mix of agency and non-agency channels to 60 and 40% respectively from about 75% and 25%

Announcing its business results, he said that the number of individual life policies sold jumped to 1m during the company’s fifth consecutive full year of operations with a sum assured of over 28,000 crore.It recorded a 102% growth in its first year premium in the financial year, he said.The company witnessed 96% jump in total income to Rs 851 crore. The cumulative sum assured now stands at Rs 28,000 crore.