Job Description:Job PurposeBancassurance is the insurance distribution model wherein the bank allows an insurance company to sell its products to the bank’s client base. ABSLI tied up with HDFC Bank in Apr 2017 to sell its insurance products through the Non-Branch Banking Channels. After a successful partnership in its year 1, HDFC Bank opened the partnership for the Asset vertical as well. This led to the increase in the scale of operations, as ABSLI now could sell their Life Insurance products through their wide spread HDFC branches PAN India, under the Open Architecture Model of Life Insurance. Open Architecture model empowers the customers now to select their Life insurance plans from more than one insurer as per their choice at competitive prices. It also lowers chances of Mis selling, with the intervention of multiple regulators like Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). While the partnership with HDFC Branch Banking under the Open Architecture Model, brought huge business potential and fuelled the growth within ABSLI, it came with multiple challenges as well. Major Challenges: 1. Mindshare: In addition to ABSLI products, HDFC bank sells insurance of 2 other Life Insurance Companies- TATA AIA and HDFC Life. The bank sales force was accustomed to sell HDFC Life Products for 17 years, hence changing their mindset is a mammoth task. Similarly, TATA AIA come with equally strong brand recall and are aggressive to garner a higher market share. Bank will have targets for multiple financial products, hence the companies participating under open architecture, will have to compete with each other to get a larger share of the LI pie that is available with the bank. 2. Product Mix: Banks largely focuses on selling of ULIP products, however a good mix of Participatory and Non-Participatory products is only profitable to our company. Hence, influencing bank partner and on ground SP (Specified person) of the bank to sell our Non Par products including Term Insurance is challenging 3. Adoption: Bancassurance with a third party entails adoption of the Bank processes, technology and product demands. This lays a high pressure on our Sales work force in meeting the third-party requirements by navigating through internal systems and processes. Thus, there is a constant threat from the competition to deliver the same before and better than us. Also, Life insurance is just one of the products from the multiple other product ranges that Bank targets to sell during a financial Year. 4. Leakage: It is gap between policies logged and policies issued. Higher Leakages result into productivity loss and imply more costs. Therefore, key is to source right customers and ensure proper documentation to minimize leakages. 5. Geography: While the wide spread bank branches PAN India, provide greater geographical reach through bank’s established network and infrastructure at a relatively lower cost, it also requires a huge Workforce’s presence on a regular basis to these branches, placed in Metro, Major cities, upcountry and rural branches. Resources available are always limited in order to control the fixed costs, hence wide spread distribution remains a challenge. 6. Low penetration in Indian market: Insurance penetration continues to be lowest in India. The government of India has taken numerous steps to increase the penetration by launching various schemes. Indians have realised the importance of purchasing life insurance plans and hence people are now investing in the same. However, there is still a long journey to convert this Push product into a Pull Product. 7. IT and Operational Challenges: HDFC Bank mandates use of digital apps and no paper work in logging in and issuance of policy. 8. Bank SP being Focal point – In Banca Assurance, company can sell Life Insurance policies only through the Specified Person (SP) of the bank, who is certified by IRDA. Hence, with such sharp competition, one is required to build a strong relationship with the SP and engage with him regularly, so that ABSLI is the preferred partner for selling Life Insurance policies to the bank customers. Hence Bank SP are the focal point and the entire relationship revolves around him / her. At the same time, if such a Bank SP resigns, retires or gets separated from the branch, entire relationship needs to be built again.
