By IANS
Chennai : Strengthening its non-traditional distribution network, city based Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co Ltd has appointed IndusInd Bank Ltd as its corporate agent.
Under the agreement, IndusInd Bank would sell Cholamandalam’s personal insurance policies to its customers.
Announcing the bancassurance (provision of insurance products by a bank) deal to the media here Thursday, M. Anandan, managing director, Cholamandalam, said the company hopes to earn a minimum premium of Rs.2.5 billion over a period of three years from this tie-up.
The insurance company expects 70 percent of the business procured by IndusInd Bank will be automobile insurance and the rest a mix of health, travel, corporate and other policies.
In the first phase of the deal, IndusInd Bank will enable 150 of its 172 branches to sell the insurance products.
Cholamandalam would train bank officials in the insurance products.
Also, the insurer will place one of its employees in each bank branch to facilitate closing a sale.
According to Bhaskar Ghose, managing director and CEO, IndusInd Bank, group marketing company IndusInd Marketing and Financial Services Ltd would also distribute the insurance products through its 600 outlets.
He said the bank would open eight more branches this year, which would also sell the insurance products, thereby increasing its fee-based income.
Apart from its existing products, Cholamandalam would launch custom designed products for the bank customers, said S.S. Gopalarathnam, president, operations.
He also said the company is moving towards selling policies on the Internet.
Interestingly, the tie-up between Cholamandalam MS General and the Hinduja group’s IndusInd Bank comes at a time when the Hindujas have announced their plans to get into the non-life insurance sector.
Anandan said the Hindujas are not in the insurance sector now and there is nothing preventing IndusInd Bank from selling products of multiple insurers.