Jio Financial Services will foray into the insurance space to offer life, general and health insurance products “through a seamless digital interface”, RIL’s chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Monday. “JFS will enter the insurance segment to offer simple, yet smart life, general and health insurance products through a seamless digital interface, potentially partnering with global players,” Ambani said.
Ambani said JFS will use predictive data analytics to co-create contextual products with partners and cater to customer requirements in a “truly unique way” in the insurance space. He said JFS will consolidate its payments infrastructure with a ubiquitous offering for both consumers and merchants, further driving digital payment adoption for India. Shareholders of RIL have received shares in JFS on a 1:1 basis following the demerger of the financial services business.
“This is equivalent to a mini bonus for our long-term investors,” Ambani told shareholders. According to him, just like Jio and Reliance Retail, JFS too will prove to be an “invaluable addition” to the Reliance ecosystem of customer-facing businesses. Significantly, JFS’ proposed foray into the country’s growing insurance space is in sync with regulator Irdai’s endeavour to have more players and a much wider range of products to achieve ‘Insurance for All’ by 2047.
Irdai has taken up the reform agenda to attain the objectives of facilitating ease of doing business in the insurance sector, ensuring the regulatory architecture is aligned with the market dynamics and boosting innovation, competition and distribution efficiencies while mainstreaming technology and moving towards principle-based regulatory regime. India’s non-life insurance sector reported growth in double digits for the tenth month in July, when the sector registered a premium of Rs. 26,629.4 crore, growing 13.8% year-on-year. “For YTD FY24, the industry has continued to report double-digit growth. This growth has continued to be driven by the health and motor insurance segments,” Care Edge said in its report released earlier this month.
