ICICI inks MoU with SIB for payment of premium

Kochi, Jan 8: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company today entered into a strategic partnership with South Indian Bank (SIB) to facilitate policy holders to pay their premium through SBI branches in Kerala.

'' Through this facility, the policy holders could pay their premium by producing the acknowledgement letter and policy number and fill up the challan concerned to make the payment in cash at any of the 296 branches in the state,'' said ICICI Prudential Life Senior Vice-President of Customer Service &Operations Poonam Bhardwaj here. She said the tie-up was to strengthen the presence in the rural parts of the country through a robust multi-channel distribution to be on par with the services offered in urban India.

ICICI Prudential Life had also entered into similar institutional tie-ups for cash management solutions with e-governance initiative of the Rajasthan Governemnt (e-mitra) and the Department of Posts in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, Ms Bhardwaj said.

She said the company had crossed one million policies in the rural segment and garnered Rs 100 crore through the 'Rural Business Channel' launched in February 2007.

ICICI Prudential had over 260 micro-offices across key states and more than 20,000 advisors to service the rural segment, Ms Bhardwaj noted.

SIB General Manager Alex Mathew said ''the bank believes in one-stop financial solutions for the customers and the partnership would enable us to provide more value-added services to our customers.''

UNI