IndusInd Bank to come up with new subsidiary

Mumbai, July 29 (UNI) The IndusInd bank is all set to enter insurance broking market of the country. Addressing the mediamen here today, the MD&CEO of the bank, Bhaskar Ghose, disclosed that the bank was seriously planning to enter the market by launching a separate subsidiery for the same.

''Right now there are quite a few small ticket players in the market and hence the IndusInd bank is planning to enter it in a big way.

The bank has already got the clearance from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) - in this connection and now it has approached to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the final approval for its forthcoming venture,'' said Mr Ghose.

The biggest advantage of the market is that one is not bound by the bank assurance norm which permits a bank to sell the insurance products of a particular insurance agency only. Currently, the IndusInd bank is selling the insurance products of Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Apart from it, the bank is also seriously planning to venture into wealth management sector with a new brand name.

About the bank's performance during the first quarter of the current fiscal, Mr Ghose said gross income was at Rs 390.14 crore as compared to Rs 349.86 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Operating profit was Rs 36.95 crore as against Rs 40.36 crore in the corrresponding period last year, he added.

However, he accepted that there was a drop in profits due to factors like lower profit recorded on sale of investments, absence of income from securitisation and above all, lower volume of bad debt recoveries.

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