LIC asks IRDA for deadline extension

Life Insurance of India (LIC) has said it has asked the regulator for extending the deadline for withdrawing existing products that do not meet the new norms from October 1.

“We are awaiting approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). We have made this request in case approvals are not with us. I am sure that IRDA is going to take a call on this and take a decision, which is in the larger interest of investors,” LIC Chairman S K Roy told reporters here on the sidelines of an event organised by Ramakrishna Mission.

According to the regulator, all the existing group products have to be aligned with the new rules before June 30, while individual products have time till September-end.

The new guideline for traditional life insurance will have products with more benefits for policyholders, improve transparency and curb mis-selling of the traditional products.

Under this, IRDA has capped commissions, and provided for minimum sum assured and guaranteed surrender value on traditional products sold by life insurers.

Talking about LIC’s product line Roy said, “Looking at what we are trying to do is that whatever products we have in the bouquet today, we want to have similar products in the restructured versions also. That is our product strategy at this moment. We are planning to file everything that is required to be filed. We are hopeful that IRDA will take a call on this matter.”

Going forward, he said the business growth is healthy and the company is expecting a good growth. “Business outlook is good. July and August have shown good growth. September business so far has also been very good. Overall, we are showing a healthy growth in the business,” he added.

The current quarter has seen growth in the business, but it is difficult to assume the impact of whatever changes have been brought in the restructured products by the regulator at this stage, Roy said.

“Unless the products are rolled out in the market and the distribution arm works on those products, it is difficult to predict the impact of the changes,” he said adding, “However, I am confident that our products will be well accepted by customers.”

Source : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/new-norms-lic-asks-irda-for-deadline-extension/article5182267.ece

Exide looking to sell stake in insurance arm

Exide looks at equity partner for ING Vysya Life Insurance after the exit of ING Group earlier this year.

Industrial battery maker Exide Industries Ltd is looking to bring in an equity partner in its insurance firm, ING Vysya Life Insurance Co. Ltd, following the sale of the ING Group’s interests in all Asian insurance ventures earlier this year.

The insurer is now wholly owned by Exide, after it bought in March the combined 50% stake of its three partners. ING, a Dutch financial services group, held 26% in the firm. The insurer is now looking to issue new shares to expand its capital base for growth, said P.K. Kataky, Exide’s chief executive officer and managing director.

Exide does not intend to sell its own stake immediately though it will get diluted due to the share sale by the insurer, he added.

Source : http://www.livemint.com/Companies/1v7IBcP3skZzczuY3V8dZK/Exide-looking-to-sell-stake-in-insurance-arm.html

ING set to exit Indian insurance business

ING Insurance International, the Dutch major, is all set to exit the Indian insurance market.

ING Insurance International, the Dutch major, is all set to exit the Indian insurance market.
The company holds 26% stake in ING Vysya Life Insurance Company.
“ING is definitely looking at exiting, it’s just a matter of time. They are at the moment concentrating on selling the rest of Asia business. Once that’s taken care of, ING will exit from India too,” five sources familiar with the development separately said.
An ING Vysya spokesperson refused to comment saying “it is business as usual at ING”.
One reason for putting the India exit on the backburner is that some issues are left to be ironed out.
For instance, ING Vysya Bank is seeking a bancassurance partnership for distributing insurance products even after the exit of the foreign partner.
“The bank wants to negotiate this with the foreign partners who are lined up for the stake sale ,” said an industry source, requesting anonymity.
“Even Exide wants to exit. And this will lead to greater trouble as they will have to seek both a domestic partner and a foreign partner or go for a merger,” this person said.
Battery major Exide Industries is the largest shareholder in the company with 50% stake.
An Exide spokesperson refused to comment, and another company source said an exit is not being contemplated.
ING has decided to sell off its insurance and asset management business by 2013 as part of a global restructuring plan.
The move will help the company to pay back $7 billion that it received from European Union in 2008. During that financial crisis, the company received $14.6 billion through a bailout plan.
According to Insurance Regulatory Development Authority data, ING Life collected premium of Rs48.79 crore for January this year. In February and March, the mop-ups were Rs62.55 crore and Rs116.96 crore, respectively. The ‘tax-saving’ month, indeed, provided a lot of cheer.
But like all life insurers, business went over a cliff with the start of the new fiscal in April and the premium collection stood at Rs14.09 crore. A major chunk of the business came from individual single and non-single premium collections.

Source : http://www.dnaindia.com/money/1706262/report-ing-set-to-exit-indian-insurance-business

DLF bids adieu to insurance, sells 74% stake in DLF Pramerica

 India’s largest realty firm DLF will exit from life insurance business by selling 74 percent stake in its joint venture DLF Pramerica Life Insurance to Dewan Housing Finance, reportedly for over Rs 350 crore. DLF had in 2007 announced entry into the life insurance business through a joint venture with US insurance giant Prudential Financial’s arm. The joint venture, where the Indian realty firm held 74 percent in the joint venture and the rest was owned by Prudential International Insurance 26 per cent, had reported a combined loss of over Rs 250 crore during past two fiscals.

 A man walks past a DLF billboard in Mumbai. Reuters “…the company today signed definitive agreements to sell its 74 percent stake in the life insurance joint venture DLF Pramerica Life Insurance…to Dewan Housing Finance and its group entities,” DLF said in a filing to BSE. Neither of the companies, however, disclosed the value of the deal but sources said it could be worth Rs 350-400 crore.

 “These agreements are subject to regulatory approvals. The transaction consideration shall be disclosed post receipt of all such approvals,” it said. “This transaction is in line with our ongoing strategy to divest non-core businesses or assets. We have had a very cordial relationship with Prudential and wish them the best in their new partnership with DHFL,” DLF Group CFO Ashok Tyagi said in a statement. During 2012-13, the company had earned first premium income of Rs 138.64 crore, a 35 percent increase over Rs 102.83 crore in the previous fiscal. At the end of 2012-13, the joint venture completed about four-and-a-half years of operations and had 55 branches in India and a team of 5,487 individual agents.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/investing/dlf-bids-adieu-to-insurance-sells-74-stake-in-dlf-pramerica-986981.html?utm_source=ref_article

Aviva may exit India life insurance business: sources

Aviva PLC (AV.L) may pull out of its Indian insurance joint venture, valued at more than $500 million, as the British insurer retreats from less-profitable markets where it has struggled to expand, people familiar with the matter said.

Aviva, which aims to cut costs by 400 million pounds by year-end, is in the process of hiring corporate advisors to find buyers for its 26 percent stake in Aviva Life, its venture with Dabur Group, the sources told Reuters.

The insurer is considering various options, including selling its stake to Dabur Group if it fails to find a foreign buyer, one of the sources said. Dabur Group owns personal care and food products manufacturer Dabur India (DABU.NS).

Aviva would be the third foreign insurer to quit India since 2012, stymied by regulations that restrict foreign ownership and fierce political opposition to changing those limits.

Aviva declined to comment. Mohit Burman, a director of Aviva Life who represents Dabur Group, was not immediately available for comment. The sources also declined to be identified due to the confidential nature of the matter.

The insurer had identified China and India as "high priority" and "must win" markets, but the move to sell out of India signals a change in that strategy.

Last year, Aviva hired former AIA Group (1299.HK) CEO Mark Wilson to lead a turn around in its business which was hit by slower growth in its main market Europe.

Wilson joined after spiralling costs and poor share price performance triggered an investor revolt in 2012 that forced out then-CEO Andrew Moss. This year, Aviva pulled out of its Malaysian insurance joint venture and exited from Russia.

TOUGH MARKET

Like many other foreign insurers, Aviva rushed into India after the government allowed foreign investment in the $40 billion-plus insurance market in 2000, lured by low penetration rates and the high savings rate in Asia's third-largest economy.

Life insurance penetration in India is about 3.4 percent of gross domestic product in terms of total premiums underwritten in a year, much lower than 8.8 percent in Japan and 8.7 percent in Britain.

Regulatory uncertainty, however, has proved tough for foreign insurers while insurance in general has failed to take off as expected among the public - the whole industry logged an accumulative $3 billion loss over the last decade.

Indian laws limit foreign ownership in domestic insurers to 26 percent. Government approval for a proposal to raise the limit to 49 percent has been pending for a long time due to opposition by nationalist politicians.

Insurers were also hit by a 2010 clamp-down on the sale of lucrative equity-linked products. Foreign firms remain overshadowed by state-owned Life Insurance Corp of India, which holds an almost 75 percent market share.

Source :  http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/aviva-india-dabur-idINDEE97406Y20130805

Card Protection Plan-Insure your Debit and Credit Cards

Suppose you are carrying multiple credit/debit cards in your wallet and lost it then what will be your situation?  It may happen to all of us. It is such a situation that scares all of us as lost cards may be utilized to any extent causing huge financial burden. The solution to this will be having an insurance cover for your debit or credit cards from the Card Protection Plan.

This plan is best suitable for persons who uses multiple credit/debit cards, keep all of them in their wallet all the time, frequent traveler or chances of losing/misplacing are high. CPP or Card Protection Plan is a comprehensive plan which protects card in the event of card loss, theft and related fraud. This product is designed to help you safeguard all your Credit, Debit and ATM Cards. If you loss the card then you can use their 24 hour helpline number and inform the same. Once you report them then CPP will inform all card issuers to cancel the cards as they lost. Let us see few benefits of this service.

Benefits-

• One call is enough to block all your cards.
• If you are registered your car or bike break downs, CPP will assist by providing roadside assistance service. But do remember that this service will be available with selected cities in India and also within 50 km range of cities.
• In case you lost the cash along with cards then CPP will provide you the emergency cash assistance of Rs.20,000. This advance is interest free and you need to repay it within 28 days.
• In case you lost the PAN card along with cards then CPP will facilitate free PAN card replacement. They will coordinate on behalf of you in getting PAN card.
• If you register your mobile phone with them and you lost then CPP will help you in blocking SIM.

Few Conditions you must know-

• This facility is available to Indian resident whose age is above 18 years.
• You need to report of loss within 24 hours of discovering the card loss.
• You can cancel the service within 30 days of buying. If you do so then they will refund the amount.

Plenty of Indian Card issuers have tied with CPP and few of them are as below.

1) SBI Credit Card Insurance

2) ICICI Card Protection Plan

3) Induslnd Bank

4) Kotak Credit Cards

5) HSBC Credit Cards

6) Standard Chartered Bank

Currently CPP offers three plans which are called 1) Classic-Rs.1,145+Taxes, 2) Premium-Rs.1,495+Taxes and 3) Platinum-Rs.1,745+Taxes.

Source : http://basunivesh.com/2013/10/08/card-protection-plan-insure-your-debit-and-credit-cards/

EPF Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP) -Transferring is now online !!!

Recently EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) started online transfer of your old employer EPF account in new EPF employer account online. I hope with this initiative lot of hurdles of the EPF members will get resolved.  Let see the procedure and guidelines of this account transfer.

The first step before proceeding to apply for online transfer is, you must have an online registered account on EPFO site. To do registrations follow the process provided “HERE“. Once your account is registered then you need to apply for transfer of account by first visiting the Online Transfer Claim Portal (OTCP) portal.For detailed instruction of how you can apply for transfer visit “HERE” where they provided the detailed instruction of applying.

Few points you must know before proceeding this online apply.

• You must be a registered member of the EPFO portal before proceeding.
• Both your previous employer as well as present employer must be available on EPFO database.
• The employer must register for the digital signature process of EPFO.
• You can check your eligibility for transfer by visit OTCP site ”Here“.
• You can’t edit any of your personal details as well as the details like joining or exit dates.
• But suppose if you found any discrepancy in the details then you can do editing so by clicking the tab called “The following information in incorrect”. Once you do the editing, take the printout of the pdf form. Self attests the same you need to submit it to the EPFO office through your current employer.
• You can submit for transfer once these rectifications are done properly.
• You can change your DOB (date of birth) also but the restriction of attempting to change is only about 3 times.
• If both your previous as well as current employer registered digital signatures with EPFO then you can submit this claim form either with previous or current employer for employer attestation.
• Even if your previous employer registered with EPFO then too you can submit form with either of them.
• If your previous employer not registered then also you can submit with either of them but it will take time to transfer as the process of verification data will be done.
• You can submit online transfer only in case your previous employer registered with EPFO for digital signature.
• The same way your present employer registration also mandatory for online transfer.
• Once online submission is done, you need to take the printout of the same and submit it with employer with self attestation.
• You have the option to choose for submitting your form for attestation either with previous or current employer.
• Within 15 days of online submission you need to submit claim form with your employer.
• If any rejection from the employer then it will be after 15 days only.
• You can view the status of claim online also.
• Below are the few reasons for rejecting your claim.

1. The claim already submitted previously and EPFO not yet rejected it.
2. You have not submitted the signed online claim transfer form with your employer within stipulated 15days period.
3. Records mismatch.
4. Signature mismatch.