IndiaFirst Life Insurance Ltd

IndiaFirst Life Insurance was incorporated in November, 2009 with its headquarters located in Mumbai, India. It is a joint venture between two of India’s public sector banks – Bank of Baroda (44%) and Andhra Bank (30%), and UK’s financial and investment company Legal & General(26%).

IndiaFirst Life Insurance has a “Bancassurance”(Bank Insurance Model) distribution network of over 4800 promoter bank branches, in 1000 cities and towns in India. The company’s initial product range covers subjects of protection (term insurance), savings, education and retirement. It has a range of group insurance products in forms of credit life, term and employee liability (gratuity and leave encashment) plans as well. They have recently introduced a whole range of health, pension and wealth accumulation plans. Dr. P. Nandagopal, who previously served as CEO of Reliance Life Insurance heads the company as Managing Director & CEO. As of February, 2010 the company has 1200 plus employees.

Shareholders

• Bank of Baroda.
• Andhra Bank.
• Legal & General Group, one of UK’s leading financial institutions.

Launch and distribution

IndiaFirst Life Insurance started its operations through 3028 branches of its promoter bank – Bank of Baroda. It initially focused on the Bancassurance model using the existing customer base of the promoter banks.

Business

Products

The company's product range covers the typical needs of protection (term insurance), savings, education and retirement. They also have a wide range of group insurance products ranging from credit life, term and employee liability (gratuity and leave encasement) plans. They plan to shortly introduce a whole range of pension and wealth accumulation plans. Its current product portfolio includes:

• Smart Save Plan
• Young India Plan
• Life Plan
• Anytime Plan
• Simple Life Plan
• Secure Save Plan
• Annuity Plan
• Group Term Plan
• Group Credit Life Plan
• Employee Benefit Plan
• Money Back Health Insurance Plan

Innovations

• Product AVs, Automated IVR and Verification Call

This service includes product audio visuals as a compulsory part in the insurance sales process. Every customer is mandatorily taken through the audio visuals before filling up the proposal form. Through an in-built application, the customer details directly get stored in a central database.

• Ask-Apply-Get (over-the-counter life insurance products Ask-Apply-Get)

The company launched Ask-Apply-Get (AAG), a new process of insurance sales over-the-counter in 3 minutes*. The process involves three steps:

1. Asking the bank executive for the chosen plan
2. Filling out the proposal form at the counter and inform the IndiaFirst call center about the same.
3. Getting an instant SMS (Text message) about being secured with the plan.

Corporate Social Responsibility

IndiaFirst closely linked to the communities that they operate in. Their initiatives and efforts are small contributions to give back to the community.

• IndiaFirst tied up with HelpAge India to support their Mobile Medicare Unit (MMU) in Mumbai, in March 2010. IndiaFirst’s supported MMU to cover the costs of medicine; doctors, pharmacist, project officers and drivers salaries; and fuel and training costs thus providing dignity to the elderly. The HelpAge MMU covers 22 slum areas of Mumbai giving free treatment to over 2,000 patients over the age of 65.
• IndiaFirst CSR forum, the Lalbaghcharaja Trust and Siddhivinayak Trust contributed the money for the treatment of the disease of an employee’s daughter at IndiaFirst who was diagnosed with tetrology of fellot (a defect in the heart).
• On November, 2010, IndiaFirst organized a blood donation camp in association with Navjivan Blood Bank at their corporate office in Mumbai. More than 55 per cent of corporate office employees participated in this drive.

Management Team

1. Dr. P. Nandagopal – Managing Director & Chief Executive Office. He has previously served in Reliance Life Insurance as CEO as well as has headed the retail sales at DSP Merrill Lynch, sales and marketing at GIC Asset Management and managing finance and operational functions at the divisional offices of New India Assurance.
2. Mr. A.K. Sridhar – Chief Investment Officer. He has previously served in UTI Asset Management as CEO and Head of Fund Management at Dawanaday AV Analytics.He has also extensively contributed on various board level committees on Investment, Product Development, HR, Risk Management and Corporate Strategy.
3. Mr. Chandan Khasnobis - Appointed Actuary. He has worked in various committees under IRDA and as an examiner of Institute of Actuaries of India examinations. He is a Fellow of Institute of Actuaries, London (FIA), Fellow of Actuarial Society of India (FASI), and Fellow of Indian Insurance Institute (FIII).
4. Mr. Kamalakar Sai – Chief Distribution Officer. He has previously served as Head of Distribution in Reliance Life Insurance where channel achieved breakeven in three years and contributed to 16 per cent of the company’s business.
5. Mr. Karni Singh Arha – Chief Financial Officer. He was part of the founding team of Reliance Life Insurance, where he helped establish the company starting with its acquisition from AMP Sanmar
6. Mr. Mohit Rochlani – Chief Operating Officer. He has worked for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company as the Zonal Manager, Customer Service and Operations for Dehi NCR, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western UP and MP
7. Mr. Rajen Doshi - Chief Risk Officer. He was earlier Vice President,Mumbai Reliance Capital Ltd., where he drove strategic business planning and execution of the existing and new businesses for the group.
8. Ms. Rubina Kesury - Company Secretary, Head - Legal & Compliance. She worked with IDBI Federal Life Insurance Company Ltd. as Manager - Compliance from 2007-2009 where she set up compliance procedure in the company in accordance with IRDA rules, regulations, guidelines & circulars and the Insurance Act, 1938.
9. Mr. Satishwar B. - Head Finance Control. Prior to joining IndiaFirst he worked with Reliance Life Insurance as AVP – Finance where he was responsible for ensuring existence of adequate control over finance transactions emerging directly from the business like premium collection, sales payouts, customer payouts etc.
10. Mr. Subhash M Menon - Chief People Officer. Prior to joining IndiaFirst, he was with SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. where he was responsible for the talent management activities of the organization.
11. Mr. Vinayak Khadye - Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining IndiaFirst Life, Vinayak held several key positions with organizations such as Reliance Life Insurance, Birla Sun Life Insurance, IBM Business Consulting, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Consulting, etc
12. Ms. Vishaka - Chief Business Officer. She has been closely associated with the growth of Bancassurance in India and has set up several such business models. Prior to joining IndiaFirst, Vishakha was the President- Bancassurance, IDBI Federal Life Insurance Ltd.

Achievements

• First company to cross the Rs. 100 crore mark in 100 days.
• First company to cross the Rs. 200 crore mark in new business premium – highest start-up phase premium productivity.
• First Life Insurance Company in India to be awarded the ISO 9001:2008 certification within 7 operational months.
• First Indian life insurer crossed the 1 Lakh policies mark within 9 months of inception.
• Received the Greentech Silver Award for the ‘Best HR strategy’.
• Received the ‘Celent Model Insurer Award 2010’ (Asia Region) for IT Architecture and Infrastructure.
• Received the ‘Technology Leader Award 2011 Life Insurance’ at The Indian Insurance Awards 2011.