PNB MetLife India Insurance Co Ltd (PNB MetLife) has decided to enter the pension space and tap the enormous growth opportunities offered by this segment in the country.
"We are working on a pension product. We should be launching (it) within next six months. We are keen to enter the pension space,” Tarun Chugh, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), PNB MetLife, said.
In his first interaction after assuming charge of his new role in end February, Chugh told Business Line that pension needs are still very huge in India.
"Longevity as a risk is still not understood (in India). Being a young country, there is a huge potential for pension plans as one needs to invest early to build a corpus for retirement years"
About 8 per cent of India's population is above 60 years of age already with no social security and 70 percent are below 30 years.
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
Chugh declined to be drawn into a specific discussion on where he would want PNB Metlife to be placed in the league table of private life insurers in terms of profits or market share.
"We have a profitable growth agenda with the customer at the centre. We aim to be among the top players in terms of customer centricity,” he said.
To ensure need based selling, PNB MetLife will offer products around the four needs (of customers)--family protection, wealth management, child education and retirement.
GOING ONLINE
Plans are afoot to sell products online while focusing energies on this distribution channel.
"We will soon start selling an online product. Chugh added.
PNB Metlife is currently focused on bancassurance and agency sales force. But the aim is to be a multi-distribution model including online, he said.
After Punjab National Bank (PNB) came on board in February last year as the largest shareholder with 30 per cent stake buy, PNB Metlife has leveraging on the PNB branch network to sell insurance products.
"A lot of work has been done in the Bancassurance space but we still have a lot to do. We have some 40 per cent penetration into the PNB branches and we are in the process of taking it further using technology", Chugh said.