Page 37 - Insurance Times December 2018

year 2016-17 Life
Insurers along
underwrote 60.45 lakh
policies in the rural
sector viz. 22.9
percent of the new
individual policies.

It is surely going to
have positive impact
on insurance
companies since most
of them are
penetrating in rural
markets and it will aid
companies to reach all
UPI also pops up payment requests from concerned parties their customers who primarily operate feature phones.
which can be acknowledged and paid as per the obligation.
Insurance companies are creating virtual payment address Also Insurance companies are seriously contemplating to
to facilitate customers remit the premium. Companies send payment request to all their renewal customers thus
progressed further to send payment requests to countless establishing connectivity. The other possibility is depositing
customer bases and with a click of the button they could their maturity/surrender/withdrawal amount through
renew their policies. Virtual payment address is an BHIM. The current limit on money transfer may hold
innovation which lessens the burden of remembering companies to go ahead with the plan but surely in the days
account number and IFSC code. to come we would expect them to really encash the
situation.
These technologies not only permit customers to remit the
premium but will also aid companies to connect to their The only constraint as of now would be restricting the
innumerable renewal base in one fold. payout to Rs.10000 which limits the capacity of insurance
companies use this medium of payment.
BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)
BHIM allows users to transfer or accept money from other AEPS through Micro ATM
UPI payment addresses or scanning QR code or account Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) is a system
number number with IFSC code or MMID (Mobile Money developed by the National Payments Corporation of India
Identifier) Code to users who do not have a UPI-based bank (NPCI) that allows people to carry out financial transactions
account.[5]. Aadhaar Authentication should be done by on a Micro-ATM by furnishing just their Aadhaar number
merchant using any Registered device viz, Micro-ATM/POS, and verifying it with the help of their fingerprint/iris scan.
mPOS, Kiosk/Tablet/Mobile Handset.
Micro ATM is the swiping machine which is carried by
within 10 days of the launch BHIM app had 1 crore business correspondent and allows the user to deposit or
downloads from Android Play Store and over 2 million withdraw cash from the BC. It is effectively substituting a
transactions across the UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and bank and aids us with wider penetration.
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) platforms.
It is surely going to be a big help for insurance companies
With respect to Insurance Industry every company has got especially when they do not have enough branches in rural
a Rural and Social Obligation to be fulfilled. All the Insurance areas but however would want to source business from the
Companies who complete their 10yrs of operation should untapped marked. Companies which have wider customer
meet 20% premium target for Rural and 50000 lives for base in rural areas would be the most to benefit from Micro
Social as part of their obligation. This will ensure that ATMs which allows them to have renewed focus on
companies are penetrating deeper in Rural Areas. For the maintaining higher persistency levels.

The Insurance Times, December 2018 37