Mumbai:

Royal Sundaram will distribute personal and commercial insurance products across the bank's 221-branch network in a phased manner. To begin with, LVB's borrower customers will be able to purchase Royal Sundaram's insurance policies through the bank's branches.

Says LVB chairman A Krishnamoorthy: "This bancassurance tie-up with Royal Sundaram for distributing non-life insurance products will leverage our branch network infrastructure mostly concentrated in South India by cross-selling the insurance products with bank deposits and loan schemes. At the outset, the bank will concentrate on insuring assets of over 2 lakh existing and prospective borrower customers."

"The bank plans to have a team of dedicated insurance relationship officers who will be trained on the various non-life insurance products and claims settlement procedures," he adds. "Insurance Regulatory Development Authority's corporate agency licence for marketing Royal Sundaram's products without risk participation or underwriting from the bank side will be obtained soon.

Royal Sundaram will look to develop a range of insurance products and services for LVB customers with a particular focus on the small-business segment. This has been a major area of growth for LVB and Royal Sundaram's specially designed Enterprise suite of products covering offices, shops, dealers/distributors and retailers, hotels, manufacturing industry, motor dealers, educational institutions and property owners offers an opportunity for both companies to develop the business to their mutual benefit.

Says Royal Sundaram managing director Micky Brigg: "Bancassurance partnerships contribute meaningfully to our commitment of being a pan-Indian player. We see banks like LVB as an important partner in the unfolding Indian insurance sector. They enable an insurer to reach into those parts of the country, where both geographically and otherwise it may not be possible for the insurer to extend its presence. Through this relationship, we will be able to distribute our rural insurance packages across the vast markets of South India. This reinforces our focus on improving insurance penetration beyond the urban and semi-urban communities."

Royal Sundaram, now in the third year of operations, insures over 4,00,000 customers. Having achieved a gross written premium of Rs 184 crore as on 31 March 2003, the company is on track to meet its Rs 280-crore target for the current financial year. As to date, Royal Sundaram has written a gross premium in excess of Rs 150 crore.

Also available are a portfolio of personal and commercial products and services. Personal line policies include motor, health, travel, personal accident and home covers, while the commercial products comprise a wide range of specialised and tailored covers for large and medium corporates including fire, marine, engineering and public liability covers.

Royal Sundaram also offers an extensive range of rural products that include livestock cover, rural personal accident and health covers, farmers' package shield that covers assets, including livestock and machinery of farmers, Kissan Pump Shield and Rural Microenterprises Package Policy for self-help groups and small rural entrepreneurs.

Royal Sundaram's focus on customer service through simple documentation, buying convenience and a one-call claim reporting services are added benefits which will be extended to LVB's customers.

Royal Sundaram's bancassurance model of marketing and distribution, through partnerships with various banks, is an effective marketing tool in India where local and multinational banks have very strong brands and even greater customer loyalty. As the market leader in this field, Royal Sundaram has partnerships with American Express, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank and SBI-GE, as well as leverages the 120 strong branch network of Sundaram Finance.