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Standalone health insurance company Religare Health Insurance has tied up with public sector lender Union Bank of India for the latter to become its corporate agent.
Union Bank, which is the first public sector bank to have a bancassurance tie-up with a health insurance company, will sell products of Religare Health Insurance to customers in its 3,500 plus branches.
Anuj Gulati, MD & CEO of Religare Health Insurance said that through this partnership, the company aims to tap the branch network of the bank to reach rural India and deepen penetration.
In early 2013, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) allowed banks to tie-up as corporate agents with one life insurer, one non-life insurer and one standalone health insurer. Earlier, banks were only permitted to tie up with one life and one non-life insurance company. Union Bank holds 5% stake in the health insurance company.
D Sarkar, chairman and managing director, Union Bank of India said that Religare Heath Insurance's health insurance and critical illness insurance products align with their ethos of customer centricity.
While Irda has now also allowed banks to become brokers, not many of them would be interested said industry players. S K Jain, executive director of Union Bank of India said that banks may not be presently inclined to become brokers since this guideline required banks to have dedicated personnel qualified in the area of insurance to look after insurance activities.
