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New Delhi, June 8 (IANS): Leading private life insurer Bharti AXA Life Insurance registered 17 per cent growth in its renewal premium to INR 1,359 core for the year ended March 31, 2020, against INR 1,164 crore in the last financial year 2018-19.
The company today said its total premium income grew 5 per cent to INR 2,187 crore in the financial year 2019-20 from INR 2,076 crore in 2018-19.
The new business premium income stood at INR 829 crore in the financial year 2019-20, as compared to INR 911 crore in the corresponding fiscal period a year ago.
"Our new business premiums contracted mainly due to a shortfall in March, an important month for new business in the industry, which was triggered by the Covid-19 lockdown and social distancing," said Parag Raja, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance.
Asset under management witnessed a surge of 21 per cent to INR 6,902 crore in for the year ended March 31, 2020, from INR 5,699 crore as on March 31, 2019.
Raja said: "We grew and registered steady performance on many business parameters in the financial year 2019-20, despite the disruption caused by the spread of Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in the crucial month of March, which adversely affected the domestic life insurance industry in terms of new business. The healthy renewal premium collections and an increase in the total premium income led our growth journey in the last fiscal."
The company continued to expand its operation and distribution footprint across India in the last financial year in terms of recruitment of fresh advisors and setting up of new branches, with a view to creating a large pool of productive agents and reaching out to every nook and corner of the country.
It set up 25 new branches to take an enhanced distribution network of 261 branches across the country during 2019-20, up over 10 per cent over 236 branches in 2018-19.
Bharti AXA Life Insurance added 3,934 new advisors to strengthen its net agent force to 43,316in the financial year ended March 31, 2020, up 10 per cent 39,382 advisors in 2018-19.
Apart from strengthening its Agency and Direct business and exploring multiple bancassurance options, in view of Covid-19 crisis and subsequent restrictions, the company has also fast-tracked the entire digitization journey and created an eco-system of tools to identify need, share solutions digitally and complete end-to-end transaction using customer on-boarding and servicing tools.
Raja said: "Protection continues to be a cardinal part of our differentiated product mix as it brings real insurance products to the customers and builds a safety net for their families. The prevailing situation has made us to re-imagine the entire sales process from face-to-face meetings to remotely approaching the customers and closing the transaction. The trainings have been modified to suit digital solicitation. We have also created digital sales tools that make the entire conversation more interesting and interactive for the customers."
The company would continue on the path of transformation with a focus on overall all renewals, improved persistency, product innovation, a diversified distribution bandwidth, digital and data-led strategy and customer-centricity to inch closer to its cherished vision of "Insurance for All", achieve profitable growth and maximize value for its stakeholders in the years ahead, he added.