Mumbai, India (CU)_ In the company’s annual report, Deepak S Parekh, Chairman of HDFC Life, said that life insurers in India should be permitted to play a stronger part in building an ecosystem in the healthcare industry so that they can act as the disruptor rather than the disrupted. While addressing the shareholders during the company’s annual report for 2020-2021, Parekh noted that the year began on an unpredictable note, as the pandemic claimed many lives and now poses a threat to public health systems, working practices, and societal norms.
According to HDFC Life Insurance Company’s chairman, this was accomplished despite an economic downturn aggravated by the pandemic, a financial sector liquidity setback, an unpredictable business condition, and varying client preferences. Parekh said, “In the wake of such an unprecedented crisis, we had to move quickly and manage a near overnight transition to a virtual working model. We ranked consistently among the top-two private sector companies in the private sector in terms of new business premium; closing the year at Rs 20,107 crore with a market share of 21.5 per cent”.
The company’s approach of having a varied distribution channel helped it get through a year when its face-to-face networks were disrupted. Parekh said, “While we continue to invest to enhance our technological capabilities, I feel that the time is right for the regulator (Irdai) to allow life insurers in India to evolve further and be the disruptor rather than the disrupted”.
Parekh highlighted that companies in Asia and advanced economies have set up subsidiaries and organized ecosystems to provide a more holistic insurance product to customers. He noted that one of the largest insurers in Asia has developed a healthcare ecosystem that comprises services such as online medical consultation. In the concerned year, HDFC Life recruited more than 300 new partners, which includes more than 50 in the growing ecosystem. The life insurer is concentrating on extending its reach by establishing a standard agency channel with more than 1 lakh financial advisors and using bancassurance partnerships.
Additionally, it is utilizing the online channel to meet the needs of current generation customers. He said, “We continue to engage with the regulator to allow life insurers to distribute non-life financial products, such as health indemnity and NPS, given the large opportunity available to utilise our distribution network to help improve financial inclusion and deepen insurance penetration in India”.
