Private life insurer Aegon Religare, currently on a massive expansion drive, is scouting for banking partners for its bancassurance business, a top official said.
"We are looking for tie-ups in the medium and large segments for long-term partners to strengthen our bancassurance channel. We may enter into one or two such tie-ups this year," Aegon Religare Life Insurance chief executive officer Rajiv Jamkhedkar told reporters here.
The company, which kicked off operations in 2008, has already tied up with two district cooperative banks for the sale of its products. Aegon now wants to partner with commercial banks, he said.
The insurer, which garnered a total received premium of Rs 166 crore in 2009-10, is targetting Rs 500 crore in the current fiscal year. Its branch strength, which currently stands at 57, will be scaled up to 100 by July next year, Jamkhedkar said.
"We will have a multi-channel approach that will focus on innovative products and a customer-centric approach," he said.
With a view to support its expansion, Aegon Religare plans to hire 13,000 advisors over the next one year, taking the total number to over 20,000, he said.
The company also plans to hire an additional 800 relationship managers this year.
To boost its operations, Aegon Religare will invest Rs 450-470 crore in the current year against the total investment of Rs 570 crore in the previous year.
Elaborating on the firm's expansion plans, Jamkhedkar said that it aims to launch a health insurance plan over the next two months. Unit Linked Products (Ulips) currently account for a majority of the company's product line.
He said that the product mix will be 65:35 in terms of Ulip and non-Ulip products, from the present 75:25.
Replying to a query on the regulatory battle over Ulips, Jamkhedkar said that it has not impacted policy sales and the company would continue to focus on the portfolio. He said that of the 74,000 policies sold so far, the insurer had come across only 340 cases of misselling, for which the customers were compensated.
Aegon Religare Life is a joint venture between international life insurance, pension and investment company Aegon, financial services firm Religare and media house Bennett, Coleman & Co.
While Religare has a majority 44 per cent shareholding in the company, Aegon has 26 per cent stake, and Bennett, Coleman & Co holds the remaining 30 per cent.