SBI Life Insurance, which was awarded the ‘Most Trusted Private Life Insurance Brand 2013’ by The Economic Times, Brand Equity and Nielsen Survey plans wants to expand their bancassurance business by 50 percent.
SBI Life Insurance is a joint venture between State Bank of India (74%) and BNP Paribas Cardif (26%). One of the biggest distribution channels for SBI Life is the huge branch network of State Bank of India (SBI). SBI has nearly 16,000 branches in India presently but SBI Life has been able to activate insurance sales in limited branches till now. SBI Life aims to tap maximum business from the existing SBI branches through which insurance is being sold and will activate another 75 branches soon.
SBI Life will increase the number of agents to 90,000 by the end of this fiscal, from the existing 83,000. SBI Life is one of the leading life insurance providers in India and was the 1st private life insurance company to become profitable.
Also, the word is that State Bank of India would dilute 10 percent of its stake in the life insurance joint venture in favor of BNP Paribas Cardif after the government allowed up to 49 percent foreign holding.
