Regulators in India should allow the life insurance firms to sell pension and indemnity based health insurance policies, as it will lead to greater penetration of insurance in the country, HDFC Life chairman Deepak Parekh said on Monday.
Today, life insurers can only sell life insurance policies at their branches and through their employees. They cannot sell, for example, NPS under the National Pension System or health indemnity covers such as mediclaim, Parekh said while addressing the shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM).
"Across the world, both pension and health cover are very much part of life insurance, as they protect people from longevity and morbidity risks.
"Hence, allowing life insurers to distribute products such as health indemnity, NPS would help improve the much-needed insurance reach across the country," he said.
Speaking about the fiscal ended March 2021, marred by the pandemic, he said HDFC Life insured close to 4 crore lives and settled over 2.9 lakh death claims in FY2020-21 despite operational challenges.
"That resulted in beneficiaries being paid over Rs 3,000 crore in total (during FY21)," he added.
He also informed that the company lost 17 employees and 38 financial consultants over the past 15 months.
However, Parekh said that India is at the cusp of recovery after being battered by the second wave of COVID-19.
The economy is expected to grow in the range of 8-10% in financial year FY22 on a low base of FY21, he said, adding the resilience of HDFC Life's differentiated business model, supported by the diversified distribution network, marketing reaching innovation, customer focussed technology and the brand trust helped the company in soliciting its business.
"We ranked consistently among the top two companies in the private sector in terms of new business premium closing the year at Rs 21,110 crore with a market share 21.5%.
We closed financial year 21 with an embedded value of Rs 26,617 crore and an operating return on embedded value of 18.5% on account of higher volume, higher value of the new business (among others)," Parekh noted.
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