K. Ganesh, Member (Life), IRDAI said fintech will redefine distribution and customer services
Pune:
K. Ganesh, Member (Life), IRDAI has said the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the peoples’ perspective of life insurance from ‘savings oriented’ to ‘protection oriented’.
“The pandemic has brought home what insurance is and why it is necessary. Importance of insurance is understood and it’s easier now to convince people for insurance,” he said while inaugurating virtually 23rd Annual C D Deshmukh Memorial Seminar at National Insurance Academy(NIA), Pune, on “Reimagining life insurance business models in the next decade” on Wednesday.
The insurance industry was subjected to a test of resilience. Learning unlearning and relearning on a daily basis. The pandemic is yet to come to a halt and it will impact people at large, he added..
He underlined the importance of the regulatory aspects that contribute to the development of the insurance sector, by the end of the decade which is expected to cross the world average.
He mentioned how the penetration level in the life segment increased from 2.8% in 2020 to 3.2% in 2021 and is now closer to the world average of 3.5%. He expects the growth momentum to continue into 2022 because of the ongoing pandemic.
“We have successfully faced the pandemic’s challenges, and moving forward, the industry needs to redefine customer engagement and challenge itself with a long-term vision,” he said Ganesh.
He said fintech will redefine distribution and customer services.
“We may have to improve customer engagement to move towards risk prevention and quality improvement.Therefore, there is need to ensure newer digital tools and lesser digital divide,” he observed.
The insurers should also focus on fraud detection and prevention.The prime minister’s Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and standard product experience tell us that simple products have higher uptake, he observed.
M R Kumar, chairperson Life Insurance Corporation, said that India has one of the largest young population in the world and they are the most informed and valued generations of all time, who takes their own financial decisions.
“Our urban population is also rising, which means a rise in income and higher consumption. These changes are transforming the insurance industry and the life insurance industry must surely look at this as a very good opportunity.”
He focussed on the need for adoption of technology by the insurers to provide frictionless journey to their customers.
He emphasised on the need for deploying bionic agency force, who can be seamlessly embedded in the existing distribution channel.
He said that the future is going to see the convergence of physical and digital worlds and the coming decade will be full of promises and bright opportunities.