BoB identifies UK firm as partner for its life insurance venture

Mumbai, Mar 30 (UNI) Bank of Baroda (BoB) has identified UK's Legal&General as its joint venture partner for undertaking business in life insurance in the country as it has plans to invest a sum of Rs 200 crore for the new venture.

Briefing the media about it here today, bank CMD Anil Khandelwal, said,''The Legal&General is the 170-year old firm in the life insurance segment in the UK and it enjoys a market share of 10 per cent there and it was why we have chosen it as our partner for our foray into life insurance in India".

While BoB would hold 50 per cent stake in the life insurance venture, its partner Legal&General will have the stake of 26 per cent as per the regulatory approvals. He made it clear that "Our hunt is still on for finding out the third partner into the venture". He hinted that the third partner may be from the domestic banking sector only.

We have already got the approval from the Reserve Bank of India for the same and now we will go to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for the same now. Also, we are waiting for the approval from the Malaysian insurance regulatory body in this context as we have already applied for the same, he added.

Commenting on his bank's plan to enter non-life segment, he said, ''We have not decided in this direction as of now. At this moment, I can only say that we have our plans to enter this segmen too in future.'' UNI