ICICI Pru chief for simpler products in life insurance

In an interview, Bagchi said just like the Indian Premier League (IPL) changed the way people watched cricket, consumers need simpler life insurance products, and insurers need to design a simpler process of onboarding customers for complex products. Earlier an executive director at ICICI Bank, he was named CEO for five years starting 19 June.

“We need to simplify onboarding, and underwriting. De-jargonizing the industry is an important thing. People should not hesitate to buy and should feel comfortable and therefore complexities need to be reduced,” he said explaining that the market doesn’t unlock value where customers feel diffident about buying.

Life insurance penetration in India was 3.2% in 2021, almost twice that of emerging markets and slightly above the global average, as per data in the 2022-23 Economic Survey. As per the survey, most life insurance products sold in India are savings-linked, with just a small protection component, and households therefore remain exposed to a significant financing gap in the event of the premature death of the primary breadwinner.

Bagchi said life insurance demand in India is still latent and people tend to put off their insurance purchase plans, which is the biggest barrier for deeper market penetration.

“People think it is important but not urgent and can be procrastinated,” he said.

Bagchi is, therefore, focussed on unlocking the latent demand in the industry through better customer engagements and capacity building by focusing on the 4P strategy—protection growth, premium growth, persistency improvement and productivity enhancement.

He is looking to implement a 4D strategy which includes data analytics, diversified proposition in terms of products and channels, digitization, and depth in distribution partnerships, to drive this growth.

“You grow by triangulating customer needs, most delivered propositions and partnerships. We are approaching this through digital and analytics. You do so by just diversifying the proposition so that all needs are met by the right product. You create partnership, capability and capacity,” said Bagchi, adding that the aim is to return to achieving growth in revenue.

ICICI Pru Life posted a 7% drop in value of new business (VNB) in the June quarter when its VNB margin also fell.

Profit after tax grew 33% from a year earlier during the quarter to ₹207 crore.

Retail protection annual premium equivalent (APE) growth at 61% to ₹110 crore affirmed the bounceback of retail protection.

Updated: 13 Aug 2023, 11:31 PM IST