Max Life sees margins to squeeze, aims 12-15% top line growth

Leading life insurance company Max Life Insurance today said it foresees its margins getting squeezed in the January-March 2014 quarter because of new regulations in place.
"We foresee margins will shrink for sure due to new regulations and norms of IRDA applicable from January that puts more value to customers. But, it is hard to guess how much right now," Max Life senior director Ashish Vohra said here.
The new Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) guidelines aimed to reduce costs for policy holders, raise returns, and increase the cover after death.
Vohra said the new regulations did not impact on capitalisation of the company and it was not looking for any fresh capital infusion as of now.

Max Life, however, remained optimistic on the total business growth during the year.
"We are aiming for 12-15 per cent growth in new premium for 2013-14. In the last three quarters we had registered about 13 per cent growth in business," Vohra said.

In 2012-13 new premium income was close to Rs 1,800 crore, Vohra said.
Declining to give a profit projection for FY 2014, Vohra said in H1 of FY14 the profit before tax (PBT) growth was 3 per cent over the corresponding period of year before.
The insurance company would launch more products and currently has an active portfolio of 14 with the riders of three ULIPs.

Max Life has introduced tablet based selling promising customer centric solutions and introduced new work system for agents with a target toward customer service, Vohra said.
Direct selling contributed 40 per cent and rest through third party channels, he said.