SBI Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between BNP Paribas Assurance and the State Bank of India. The company is planning to launch its first individual health insurance plan next month.
U.S. Roy, managing director and CEO, SBI Life Insurance Company informed, “We got the approval of the insurance regulator for the product last month and at present we are upgrading our information technology system for this product. Hopefully, we’ll launch our first standalone health insurance plan in August.”
Foreseeing big business in health insurance, the well established insurance companies like Life Insurance Corporation of India, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Reliance Life Insurance and Tata AIG Life Insurance have already launched their individual plans besides offering critical-illness riders.
Similar to the other life insurers, SBI Life’s health insurance scheme will also have a defined benefit plan where the policy-holder will be given a predetermined sum in the case of hospitalization.
Only Bajaj Allianz has recently introduced a family floater insurance plan under which the hospitalization bills will be reimbursed subject to the sum assured — similar to the mediclaim policies of the general insurance companies.
In 2007-08, SBI Life earned a total premium income of Rs 5,622 crore, of which income from new policy sales was Rs 4,800 crore. “Our net profit for the year stood at Rs 34 crore compared with Rs 3.5 crore in 2006-07 and Rs 2.02 crore in 2005-06,” Roy said. The life insurer showed a growth in net profit for the third year in a row. It was integrated in March 2001.
“We have shown more than 100 per cent growth in business during the first quarter of the current fiscal. However, since we provide mark-to-market provisioning for our investments as a prudential practice, though it is not required for long-term investments such as life insurance. Our growth in profitability will not be much given the turmoil in both stock prices and interest rates,” Roy said.
In the first quarter of 2007-08 SBI Life earned a premium income of Rs 426 crore from new business. Between April and June this year, the insurer is expecting a first year premium income of between Rs 800 crore and Rs 900 crore.
Roy said, “For the current financial year, our target is to achieve a total premium income of Rs 10,500 crore and a first year premium income of Rs 8,500 crore”. The SBI Life ranks second in terms of market share among private life insurers in the country.
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