Bancassurance: New Dawn in Indian Insurance Distribution.

The increasingly competitive environment in the financial services, has resulted in pressure to develop and utilize alternative delivery channels effectively and the Bancassurance distribution channel is the result of the same. The IRDA Bill 2000 has stimulated the growth of bancassurance by allowing use of multiple distribution channels by banks and insurance companies. Banking institutions and insurance companies have found bancassurance to be an attractive and profitable complement to their existing activities. Over the years, regulatory barriers between banking and insurance have diminished and has created a climate increasingly friendly to bancassurance. Bancassurer should differentiate themselves in a meaningful way, in order to meet customers' needs for a wider, more convenient choice of channels for delivering exceptional, customized experiences to their different customer segments and seizing market share. The persistency rate in Bancassurance due to the continuing contact of the Bank with its customers, the ease of payment of premia and the facility of maturity/claim payments to the bank account, make it a very customer friendly channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]