Max New York Life to tap market potential in rural India:MD

Panaji, Dec 8 (UNI) Max New York Life (MNYL), one of India's leading private life insurance companies, will focus on tapping the market potential in rural areas with new and affordable micro-insurance products soon. The company will also strengthen its network to become the top private insurance player in the country within ten years.

Interacting with reporters in connection with the opening of its first general office in Goa as part of efforts for strengthening its operations in western India, the company Managing Director cum Chief Executive Officer Gary Bennett said the private insurance players had a huge untapped insurance market in the country that needs to be exploited.

''The private players as of now account for a mere 35 per cent of the market share and the rest was grabbed by the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India even as a huge market remains untapped, particularly in rural areas,'' he said.

India with one billion population was grossly an under-insured country with only 1.9 to 2.2 penetration in the insurance market, leaving a huge untapped market potential with private players poised to play a level playing field, he said.

MNYL chief said the private insurance players were now eying on China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam with the opening up of their economies. The prospects in China and India were more encouraging with bouyant economic growth factors including the infrastructure sector.

''We focus now more on India which enjoys strong economic fundamentals with the government encouraging insurance reforms and infrastructure development to fuel exponential growth,'' Mr Bennett said.

MNYL had of date sold over 1.2 million policies with an insured sum of Rs 34,700 crores. The company had a distribution network in 110 offices across 82 cities in the country. It had planned to spread its network to 200 cities soon.

MNYL is a joint venture between Max India Limited and New York Life, a Fortune 100 company, occupying the third position among the private insurance players in India offering both individual and group life insurance solutions.

''Our stretegy is to establish ourselves as a trusted life insurance specialist on the bedrock of quality of advice. We have over 19,400 agent advisors who are widely considered the best in the business,'' he said.

Of 110 offices as many as 31 were located in rural areas, particularly in Punjab, and efforts were underway to increase their number through different networks, he said.

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