| LIC PLANS TWO PRODUCTS TO GRAB IMD FUNDS
The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India will compete
for the Rs. 37,000 crore corpus under India Millennium Deposit
(IMD). which will mature in December. AK. Shukla. Chairman,
said: “We will launch two products by November to coincide with
the maturing of MD”.
In total. LIC is launching three new products - a traditional
endowment plan offering numerous options and a wholelife unit-linked
insurance plan (UIip) aimed at IMD redemption. and a group UIip.
The launch of new insurance policies will also coincide with
the maturing of LIC’s own single premium bonds, the five-year
Bima Nivesh plan, which matures starting this month.
While the life insurance behemoth hopes to garner a percentage
of .IMD. its subsidiary in Bahrain is also coming out with new
products in line with local regulations. to retain a part of
the IMD from non-resident Indians (NRls).
At present the issue of these bonds, State Bank of India and
its subsidiary SBI Life Insurance Company and a host of foreign
banks are making beeline to tap this huge corpus by offering
attractive interest rates and various products. “There are too
many competitors for MD”. said Shukla.
At the same time. LIC’s own plans matures later this month.
“February 2006 will see a huge volume worth Rs. 400-500 crore
maturing as most sales took place during February and March”.
said Shukla. The public sector major hopes to retain the funds
by selling policy holders the new insurance schemes.
Bima Nrvesh has been one of the most successful plans of LIC
as it offered a high assured. guaranteed rate of interest on
the single premium bonds for a period of 5 and 10 years.
The plan introduced in September 2000 will mature this month
in the case of those policyholders who had opted for the 5 year
plan.
Courtesy Business Standards 16.9.2006
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