Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance is witnessing a lot of demand for insurance products from non-resident Indians , as UAE, USA, UK, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the top five countries for the private life insurer’s NRI business.
“We have a separate segmented approach towards NRIs. There is a team that completely looks at that. About a year-and-a-half back we had opened our representative office in Dubai. It is greatly appreciated by the NRI community there, because a lot of business happens from these geographies, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market. We see a lot of interests in investing in the Indian financial services space. And, there is an Indian story that rings very, very well with this particular community,” Rajesh Krishnan, Chief Operations & Customer Experience Officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, told businessline.
For the Bajaj Group’s life insurance company, a lot of business is coming from the US. After UAE and the US, the United Kingdom, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the next three major markets for the company in terms of NRI business.
“The NRIs in the US are quite wealthy, typically professionals, and there is a greater interest in insurance products. Presently there have been geopolitical movements, something that we have never seen five years ago. Of late, we are hearing that many people from the US want to come back to India, especially for tech companies. We see a lot of these interests coming in. Even for the NRIs who don’t come here, I think they want to participate in the India growth story,” Krishnan said, pointing out that the cost of buying a term policy is far cheaper in India than it is with a global insurer.
Bajaj Allianz launches products tailor-made for NRIs to keep improving customer experiences. “We keep looking at customer feedback to keep improvising. We have done a lot. We look at what are the key segments. There are interests across participating in Indian markets or ULIPs,” Krishnan said.
According to the company, its video call center has become extremely popular with its NRI customers because they get to see a fellow Indian coming online. The insurer offers medical test facilities in medical centers in over 40 countries, out of which in 20 countries it also offers the convenience of doing medical tests at customers’ homes.
Bajaj Allianz Life, a joint-venture between Bajaj Finserv and Germany-based Allianz, served more than 4.18 crore individuals and group customers as on September 30, 2024. As of September this year, it manages Assets Under Management to the tune of ₹1.23 lakh crore.
“The company believes in being a customer first organisation. So, anything and everything before we embark upon, we first look at whether this is good for the customers or not. When I say good for the customers, it is in terms of the products, the processes, the services, as well as ease of doing business with us. That is where the digital initiatives come into play. All our initiatives revolve around leveraging technology, including digital platforms,” Krishnan added.
The company has a distribution network of over 560 branches. It has around 1.59 lakh agents and as many as 372 institutional partners, including 35 bank partners across India, to distribute products.