Bank of Baroda (BoB) and National Insurance Company Limited (NIC) have entered into a business alliance for selling NIC''s general insurance products. At the MOU signing ceremony at Mumbai, H S Wadhwa CMD, NIC and P S Shenoy, CMD, BOB were present.

The tie-up is aimed at providing value added-services to customer of the bank. BoB is a leading public sector bank with 25 million customers in 18 countries. Wadhwa is very optimistic about the tie-up. At a press gathering in Mumbai, he said, "We have already specialised in bancassurance by tying up with 14 banking institutions. The customers of the bank will benefit by getting financial and insurance products under one roof.

"While NIC is the fastest growing general insurance company in the country and currently the second largest general insurer in India, this tie-up with BOB would help us to grow faster during the current financial year. NIC has been rated AAA by ICRA indicating the highest claims paying ability. Our solvency margin is twice the margin required under the IRDA regulations. Our company has earned international recognition as one of the top five general insurance companies in the Asia Pacific, by Asia Insurance Review, at Singapore"

P S Shenoy said that this was a great leap forward in universal banking. It is a manifestation of the Banks continuing endeavour to provide the complete range of financial solutions under its single window delivery model. The bank is currently in transformation gear and its new business strategy enabled by IT and, driven by the customer is poised to provide the consumer with financial solutions of global standards. In a few months the bank will role out its core banking solution which will usher in an era of convenient anytime anywhere banking across diverse product categories.

NIC is aiming to post a decent growth in its premium volume during the current year, over its previous year''s figure of Rs3,417 crore. The premium target for the year 2004-05 has been set at Rs4,400 crore. The company aims to become the number one general insurance company by the end of the current financial year.

NIC recently launched a complete personal line insurance plan — Sampoorna Suraksha Bima — designed to cover various personal protection needs of individuals such as property, health, accidents, professional errors, in a single policy with a single renewal date and at discounted rates, thereby reducing the need to manage excess paper work and different premium payments.

In 2003-04 the company''s premium income grew at 19 per cent on Indian business — the highest among the four PSU insurers as compared to the average growth of 8 per cent of the other PSU insurers.

Bank of Baroda closed the 2003-04 Financial Year with a net profit of Rs967 crore up from Rs772 crore in the previous year. Its operating profits were up 44.78 per cent ROA stood at 1.20 per cent, NPA (net) at 2.99 per cent and CAR at 13.91 per cent The Bank declared a dividend of 65 per cent for 2003-04. BOB''s total business (deposits plus advances) crossed the Rs10,1000- crore mark.