ICICI Pru garners Rs 100cr from rural India

Mumbai, December 12, 2007: Marking its eight year of operations, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance announced its successful foray into rural India, today. Taking a cue from its achievements in the segment while meeting the IRDA guidelines, the company has identified rural as the next big opportunity and has established a strong business model to strengthen its presence further in rural India.

ICICI Prudential Life launched the Rural Business Channel and Rural Operations in February 2007 and has garnered over Rs. 100 crores business, since then. Over the last few months, the company has developed a robust multi-channel distribution network and created a strong service infrastructure to ensure customers are provided service experience at par with that in urban India.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Bhargav Dasgupta, Executive Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said, "In tune with our philosophy of 'customer first' we have designed our rural strategy to cater to the unique requirements of our rural customer. This customer-centric approach is essential to build the trust quotient amongst rural customers and has enabled us to become the leading private life insurer in rural segment, also." He added, "ICICI Prudential Life in the last few months has built a strong network of micro-offices and dedicated advisors and has launched a series of unique service initiatives, to ensure complete customer convenience."

Key initiatives in the rural segment

Multi-channel distribution network

ICICI Prudential Life has developed a multi-channel distribution network to increase touch-points for

· Over 260 micro offices in tehsils and districts across key states

· Over 20,000 advisors dedicated to the rural segment

· Tie-ups with leading RRBs, MFIs, NGOs

ICICI Prudential Life's service commitment to rural India

To ensure the rural customer enjoys the highest level of service experience, ICICI Prudential Life has launched several service initiatives. These partnerships have been designed to provide complete customer convenience.

·Providing support in regional language

Application forms: In order to help customers better understand the information they are filling, the company now provides policy forms in Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Telugu, Malyalam or Hindi, depending on the state they belong to.

Policy documents: Customers will also receive the policy document in the language opted by them out of the above stated five languages

Regional call centre: Customers are provided the option of speaking to an ICICI Prudential Life call-centre executive in regional language they are most comfortable in (out of the above stated five languages)

· Tie-up with Indian Postal Services

ICICI Prudential Life has partnered with Indian Postal Services in AP, UP, Punjab and Gujarat to provide policyholders premium paying facilities in cash across each of these states

· Tie-up with South Indian Bank (SIB) in Kerala, to enable customers pay premiums in cash in any of the SIB branches, within the state

·E-governance initiatives

ICICI Prudential Life has tied up with aponline.com (Andhra Pradesh) and emitra.com (Rajasthan), to ensure that policyholders can utilise the kiosks provided by them to pay their premiums

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance launched the biometric smart cards for its rural policyholders, making it the first life insurance company in India to provide this service to its rural customers. The cards will enable policyholders carry all their policy details without the hassle of carrying policy documents for any policy related activity. The biometric smart cards have been issued to customers at no extra cost.

About ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential plc. It was one of the first players to commence operations when the insurance industry was opened to the private sector in 2000. For the half year ended September 30, 2007 , the company garnered Rs. 2,466 crore of weighted retail + group new business premiums and has underwritten over 5 million policies since inception. The company has a network of over 735 offices and over 243,000 advisors. It is also the only life insurer in India to be assigned AAA (Ind ) credit rating from Fitch Ratings. For the past six years, ICICI Prudential has maintained its leading position amongst life insurers in the country, with a wide range of flexible products that meet the needs of the Indian customer at every step in life. To know more about the company, please visit www.iciciprulife.com.