Bajaj Allianz to stick to regulars

Bajaj Allianz Life (BAL) has drawn up plans to focus more on regular premium products.

The company last year gave more thrust on the single premium policies in order to increase its business and become number one.

However, it now feels that focusing more on the single premium products may affect the business and hence the shift.

"Last year, our major share of business came from the single premium products. This is an easy way to sell products. However, if this continues it may affect the company's core business segment. We are, therefore, focusing on other products and are targeting only 45 per cent business in the single premium products segment," chief executive officer of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd, Sam Ghosh, said

Besides, the company is also increasing its presence in smaller cities, as according to him, though currently big cites account for more business, the trend would reverse in the next few years.

"Last year, 55 per cent of the company's business came from the 150 offices of big cities of the total 900 offices the company has across the nation. This trend will reverse in the coming two years as the market in smaller cities is growing rapidly."

The company collected Rs 3,300 crore as premium last year. This year, thus far, it has collected Rs 2,500 crore and has set a target of Rs 1,000 crore more than the last year's collection.

The company is also planning to ramp up its agents' strength. "Currently, we have 1,70,000 agents across the nation and are planning to increase the number to 2.5 lakh by the end of this financial year," he said.

Ghosh was in Ahmedabad to officially launch the company's two new products "" Samaraksha, a single premium term assurance plan especially designed to meet the needs of rural areas, and UnitGain Plus SP, which offers a uniform allocation across all premium slabs.

Samraksha is offered in two terms of 5 or 10 years and its one-time premium starts from Rs 75.