Page 36 - Insurance Times December 2018

As of January'18 we have 3.62 crores Credit Card Holders be willing to accept renewal from even third parties.
and a whopping 84.67 crores Debit Card Holders. Post
Demonetization Govt. Initiate series to steps to promote Online Portals
Digital Payments and it is quite evident that for January'18 IRDAI has launched a website http://isnp.irda.gov.in to
Credit Card registered transactions worth 41437 crores and promote E-commerce in insurance space which will lower
Debit Card to a tune of 40761 crores. We are seeing spike the cost of transaction and bring higher efficiency thus
in terms of number of transactions in both the segments benefitting the customers with discounts.
viz. Debit Card and Credit Card.
E-commerce is seen as an effective medium to increase
Insurance Companies have swiping machines at the branches insurance penetration and bring financial inclusion in a cost-
which are utilized by policy holders to pay back the new as efficient manner.
well as renewal premiums. Policy holders have the option to
pay the premium through debit or credit cards. Also IRDAI has licensed 24 Web Aggregators who provide
services to customers. These Web Aggregators primarily
Insurance companies may insist on policy holder paying the work on lead generation and pass on to the concerned
first premium to ensure insurable interest exists and may insurance company.

Share of various Channels of Distribution - Number of Policies issued and

amount of HI Premium 2016-17 (Excl. PA and Travel Insurance)

Name of the Channel Individual Group Business incl. Total
Business Govt Business (Individual + Group)
No. of Gross No. of Gross No. of Gross
policies Premium policies Premium policies Premium
Issued Issued Issued
Brokers 4% 4% 9% 45% 4% 28%
Corporate Agent - Banks 13% 11% 48% 5% 14% 7%
Corporate Agent - Other than Banks 3% 4% 13% 1% 3% 2%
Direct Sale - Online 2.3% 2.3% 1.9% 0.5% 2.3% 1.2%
Direct Sale - Other than Online 9% 9% 3% 43% 9% 29%
Individual Agents 68% 70% 25% 5% 67% 32%
Micro-insurance Agents 0.004% 0.000% 0.031% 0.005% 0.005% 0.003%
Web- aggregators 0.397% 0.401% 0.015% 0.008% 0.384% 0.171%
Insurance Marketing Firms 0.004% 0.005% 0.000% 0.000% 0.004% 0.002%
Total of all channels 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

While the Online Portal contributes to only 2.3% of the total companies have also placed information on Maturity
sales the spending pattern and behavior of Gen X and Y amount and the ways and means it can be re deployed
population and Web Aggregators as a channel is surely leading to cross sell and up sell.
going to take the participation to the next level in the days
to come. UPI Transactions

Every insurance company is capitalizing on online portals Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a technology that links
with payment gateways for customers to remit bot the new manifold bank accounts into a distinct mobile application
and renewal premiums. Also quite a lot portal went one amalgamating numerous banking features, flawless fund
step further in enabling financial planning as a tool to directing and merchant payments gateway in one fold. We
ascertain the shortfall in life stage goals and suggest an are witnessing a steady increase in the transaction volume
appropriate plan for the customer. Furthermore insurance between January'15 and February'17.

36 The Insurance Times, December 2018