SBI General Insurance

BANKING   SBI General Insurance premium income at Rs7.71bn in FY’13

SBI General Insurance Company Limited (SBI General), the general insurance arm of State Bank of India (SBI), has successfully achieved Premium Income of Rs.7.71bn during the FY13, registering an impressive 208% growth.  Sharing the Financial year performance with the media, Bhaskar J Sarma, MD & CEO of SBI General Insurance said, “We are delighted with our growth during the last FY, as we emerged as one of the fastest growing players in General Insurance Industry to cross Rs.7.50bn mark in a financial year, an achievement that we were able to do just in the third year of our operations. We expanded our Branch Network to 38 locations pan-India and presence in another 120 locations through satellite resources during the last financial year.  We propose to expand our presence to another 25-30 more locations during the current FY. We also take deep satisfaction in providing Personal Accident Cover to over One Crore Saving Bank Account holders of SBI during the last fiscal. The cover provides the much needed immediate support to the accident victim’s (account holder) family.  This product has also been extended to the account holders of SBI’s associate banks."  During the last financial year SBI General generated 61% of its business from the Retail segment. The Corporate segment contributed nearly 20%, while SMEs accounted for 19%.  Mr.Sarma added, “We are especially happy with the way our Retail and SME Business Segments are growing. Retail segment registered a growth of 267% and SME Segment registered a growth of 361% during the last financial year."  Talking about the Distribution Channels used by SBI General, Mr.Sarma said, “Bancassurance is the lead Channel with a contribution of 63%, followed by Agency Channel with 19%, Broker Channel with 12% and Direct Channel contributing the balance 7% of the Premium Income.  We expect Bancassurance Channel to be the dominant Channel for the next few years. We are also focussing on growing the Agency and brokers Channels”.  Fire Insurance Portfolio constitutes 41% followed by Motor Insurance portfolio at 35% and Health & Personal Accident portfolio at 15%. The rest of the portfolio contributes for the balance 9% of the Premium Income. Speaking about the factors that contributed to the success of SBI General’s growth over the last year, Mr.Sarma said, “Identifying and creating products that can serve the needs of Bank’s large customer base, rapidly expanding presence in over 150 locations across India and by inducting nearly 10,000 SBI employees & over 3,000 Agents over the last couple of years in distribution channel have really helped us create a strong foundation for rapid growth”.