#OutlookMoney Insurance Summit 2023 in Mumbai, a premier event dedicated to exploring the latest trends, innovations, and challenges in the insurance industry.
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03 Thank you so much for joining us here.
00:00:10 Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,
00:00:14 and of course, insurance industry leaders,
00:00:17 my name is Zinnia Fernandes.
00:00:18 And it is my absolute pleasure to welcome you all
00:00:22 to the third edition.
00:00:23 Yes, it is.
00:00:24 Edition number three of Outlook Money Insurance Summit.
00:00:28 And that is your cue for a round of applause.
00:00:31 Come on.
00:00:31 Now, I'll tell you why I asked you to applaud.
00:00:37 One, of course, because I made an opening.
00:00:40 But secondly, because we're in the third edition.
00:00:43 But this time is really the first time
00:00:46 that we are conducting this summit physically,
00:00:50 on ground, after having two very successful virtual editions.
00:00:55 Here we are.
00:00:56 And you'll agree with me that the experience of being
00:00:59 together in one room, face to face, the energy that that
00:01:03 creates is something different.
00:01:05 So can we have one more bigger round of applause for the fact
00:01:08 that we are all here in this room?
00:01:09 So this year's theme, as all of you
00:01:15 would know since you've seen the agenda already,
00:01:18 is crystal ball gazing, new age disruptors in the insurance
00:01:22 industry.
00:01:23 And while we all know what this really means,
00:01:27 I would like to throw light on the fact
00:01:29 that we've designed today and all the conversations that
00:01:32 are going to take place around discussing
00:01:35 what are the latest trends that we can look at for 2023.
00:01:40 But more importantly, what is the kind of technology
00:01:44 that is shaping the future of this industry?
00:01:47 Technology, as we all know, is expected to, already does,
00:01:52 and will continue to play a very, very pivotal role
00:01:56 in shaping the insurance industry,
00:01:58 be it ALML or the metaverse.
00:02:00 We're already expecting it to transform the way
00:02:04 we do business forever.
00:02:06 So the key to having all of these conversations
00:02:09 is to discuss, is to debate, is to figure out
00:02:12 how all of this is going to affect and change
00:02:16 the landscape of our industry and our community.
00:02:21 So without any further ado, let's
00:02:23 begin with these conversations.
00:02:25 But to kick off today by setting the context and telling us
00:02:29 what can we expect, please join me
00:02:31 in welcoming on stage, editor out of Money, Nidhi Sinha.
00:02:35 [APPLAUSE]
00:02:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02:39 Welcome, Nidhi.
00:02:49 Thank you, Zinnia, for that lovely introduction.
00:02:52 Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome
00:02:54 to the third edition of the Outlook Money
00:02:56 Initiative Summit.
00:02:58 I'm delighted to see so many of you
00:03:00 here, including top industry leaders from the life,
00:03:04 non-life industry, technology platform providers, value
00:03:08 creators, distributors, the agent community,
00:03:11 and customers, of course.
00:03:13 The summit promises to be an exciting and informative event
00:03:17 as we discuss and brainstorm the impact of new age disruptors
00:03:22 on the insurance industry.
00:03:24 This is critical technology that we
00:03:26 need to discuss and the innovations around it
00:03:29 and how it can impact the customer and distributor
00:03:32 profiles going forward.
00:03:35 But before we delve more into that,
00:03:37 I would like to take a moment to celebrate a significant
00:03:41 milestone for Outlook Money.
00:03:43 The year 2023 also marks the 25th anniversary
00:03:47 of the magazine.
00:03:48 [APPLAUSE]
00:03:50 When we launched in 1998, it was a niche genre of journalism.
00:03:56 And we are proud to have served our readers
00:04:01 for a quarter of a century now.
00:04:03 Over the years, the insurance industry, of course,
00:04:06 and the personal finance landscape
00:04:08 has seen significant changes.
00:04:11 But what has remained constant is
00:04:13 our accurate, insightful journalism
00:04:16 and balance in practical advice for our readers.
00:04:21 Now I come back to discussing the topic today.
00:04:23 The insurance industry, of course,
00:04:28 has come a long way from the year 2000
00:04:31 when the insurance regulator was constituted and opened up
00:04:35 the market for private players.
00:04:36 Now we live in a world where technology kind of defines
00:04:40 how we live, work, and interact.
00:04:43 And it has the potential to change
00:04:45 how products are designed, how policies are underwritten,
00:04:49 how frauds are detected, and so much more,
00:04:52 including improving customer experience.
00:04:56 As we navigate these changes, of course,
00:04:58 it's crucial to remember that the customer is
00:05:01 at the heart of everything that we do.
00:05:03 In fact, the customer is also a new age disruptor
00:05:07 because he or she is much more savvy and more aware
00:05:11 and is demanding much more from the insurance players now.
00:05:15 We hope that this forum will provide a platform
00:05:19 for meaningful discussions today.
00:05:21 And thank you all for joining us today
00:05:23 and for your continued support for Outlook Money.
00:05:26 I hope the summit will be informative and thought
00:05:28 provoking.
00:05:29 Thank you.
00:05:31 Thank you so much, Nidhi.
00:05:32 Thank you for setting the context.
00:05:35 We're going to open with our first power
00:05:38 panel of the summit today.
00:05:40 But before that, congratulations, Outlook Money,
00:05:43 and the entire team on completing 25 glorious years.
00:05:47 That is phenomenal.
00:05:49 OK, I also want to remind you that all of the dialogue that's
00:05:53 going to happen here on the stage,
00:05:55 we would love to take it outside the room, too,
00:05:58 to the rest of our community.
00:06:00 So I'm going to invite all of you
00:06:02 that while we're listening to our speakers,
00:06:05 if you could also join us on the social media conversation.
00:06:09 And when you do that, you can use hashtag Outlook Money
00:06:12 Insurance Summit so that our entire community can find all
00:06:16 of the data under one hashtag.
00:06:18 All right?
00:06:19 So it's hashtag Outlook Money Insurance Summit.
00:06:22 You can share your thoughts, your opinions, anecdotes,
00:06:25 your key takeaways, even videos and moments from the summit.
00:06:31 All right, let's talk about our first power panel here.
00:06:33 We have distinguished personalities
00:06:36 from the world of insurance who will be joining us
00:06:38 here on the stage discussing the topic New Age Disruptors.
00:06:44 The stage is all set, and so am I
00:06:46 to introduce our panelists and Naveen, who will
00:06:49 be moderating this discussion.
00:06:51 Our esteemed panelists, first, we
00:06:53 have Mr. Kamlesh Rao, the managing director and CEO
00:06:58 of Aditya Bela Sun Life Insurance, who
00:07:00 brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge
00:07:04 in the insurance industry.
00:07:07 Next, we have Mr. Mahesh Kumar Sharma, the managing director
00:07:11 and CEO of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited.
00:07:15 Yes, sirs, please join me on stage as I invite you.
00:07:18 He has been a driving force behind the company's success
00:07:22 in recent years.
00:07:23 Joining them is Mr. N.S. Kannan, the CEO of ICICI Credential
00:07:28 Life Insurance Company Limited, who, as we all know,
00:07:31 has been instrumental in shaping the future of the insurance
00:07:36 industry.
00:07:37 And finally, we have Ms. Vidha Padalkar,
00:07:39 the managing director and CEO of HDFC Life Insurance,
00:07:44 who has been recognized as one of the most influential women
00:07:47 leaders in the country.
00:07:49 And moderating this discussion, of course,
00:07:52 is Ms. Nidhi Sinha, who, as we all know,
00:07:55 is an accomplished journalist with over two decades
00:07:58 of experience in finance and business.
00:08:01 OK, fantastic.
00:08:03 Nidhi, over to you.
00:08:04 Thank you again, Sinha.
00:08:08 I welcome my esteemed panelists for taking up the valuable time
00:08:11 to attend the Outlook Money Insurance
00:08:13 Summit, the third edition.
00:08:16 As we all know, COVID-19 pandemic kind of
00:08:21 choked us out of a comfortable place.
00:08:24 And the insurance industry had to kind of re-embrace
00:08:29 digitalization and reinvent itself in many ways.
00:08:34 So it changed the way the products are sold and received
00:08:37 by new age customers.
00:08:38 And like I was saying earlier, one of the disruptors
00:08:41 that we see today are the customers themselves,
00:08:43 because their demand is much more than ever before.
00:08:48 So apart from that, of course, there
00:08:49 is AI, machine learning, and metaverse,
00:08:54 emerging technologies that can kind of recalibrate
00:09:00 the future of the insurance industry.
00:09:03 So now we have seen many innovations
00:09:04 in the general insurance industry, of course,
00:09:07 but not so much in life insurance, I would say.
00:09:10 So what is the way forward is something
00:09:13 that we'll discuss today.
00:09:14 And we are, of course, fortunate enough
00:09:16 to have CEOs from some top life insurers in the country who
00:09:20 will share their opinions with us.
00:09:22 So starting with you, Vibha, the only woman panelist
00:09:27 today on this session, Vibha, the insurance landscape
00:09:32 has changed a lot in the past few years,
00:09:34 like I said, during COVID.
00:09:37 So how is it readying itself to tackle other disruptors,
00:09:41 other emerging technologies that are coming up in the future?
00:09:45 Thank you, Nidhi.
00:09:46 And congratulations on Outlook Money
00:09:48 completing its 25 years.
00:09:49 Time really flies.
00:09:51 And all of you have gone from strength to strength,
00:09:53 so congratulations.
00:09:55 And all of you have been great supporters of the life
00:09:58 insurance industry over the many decades.
00:10:01 So thanks for that as well.
00:10:04 A couple of things, and I just wanted to--
00:10:06 all my co-panelists will agree to your--
00:10:09 or disagreeing with your point that life insurance has not
00:10:12 evolved as much as general insurance.
00:10:14 Absolutely.
00:10:15 I want to talk--
00:10:16 Absolutely.
00:10:17 And let's dispel that myth many times over today on this panel.
00:10:20 And this question never gets asked again.
00:10:23 And that is, really, in life insurance today,
00:10:26 there's nothing like new age technology or new age life
00:10:29 insurers and old age life insurers.
00:10:32 Because when you keep customer at the center of whatever
00:10:35 you do, customers are evolving.
00:10:38 And we would have customers who want
00:10:40 to buy in the traditional way.
00:10:42 We would have not just jumping to the Gen Z,
00:10:45 but really anyone else, depending
00:10:47 on the digital age of the customer,
00:10:49 and not necessarily just the human age of the customer.
00:10:53 And we need to be where the customer is.
00:10:55 Customers' expectations, even more so after the pandemic,
00:10:59 are that the way they buy their grocery
00:11:01 is how they are expecting to buy anything else,
00:11:03 be it insurance or any other financial services product.
00:11:06 And so it's really up to us to make technology core of what
00:11:10 we do as, again, just a gratuitous.
00:11:13 And so how we are designing products, so what we sell
00:11:16 and how we sell becomes important,
00:11:19 as, again, it's only what we sell.
00:11:21 And by that, I mean not just the design of the product,
00:11:23 but also the entire ecosystem, as well as the journey,
00:11:28 both in terms of new business, as well as onboarding,
00:11:32 and lastly, also in terms of what
00:11:34 do we do with all the data.
00:11:36 Why do we need to do anything with data?
00:11:38 Because to make it very easy for the customer,
00:11:42 all the complexity is behind us with us,
00:11:44 exactly like how we use technology.
00:11:47 A lot of complexity behind the scenes,
00:11:49 but the customer doesn't need to be saddled with it.
00:11:52 And data allows us to do that.
00:11:54 And as we join hands together, both as a sector, as well
00:11:59 as larger financial services--
00:12:01 and that's exactly what the government is also looking at--
00:12:05 use of data so that you give both seamless onboarding,
00:12:08 seamless servicing, and also the third leg
00:12:11 in terms of risk management.
00:12:13 So how do we keep out unwanted behavior patterns in the life
00:12:17 insurance so that the honest customer is not subsidizing
00:12:20 the customer who is not honest?
00:12:22 So all of this is intrinsic to how the business
00:12:25 models have changed.
00:12:26 I'll give you a couple of data points.
00:12:28 Today, close to 96% of our renewals--
00:12:31 96%, 97%-- are entirely digital.
00:12:34 Or for example, we have virtual avatars--
00:12:36 and all of us do--
00:12:38 virtual avatars in terms of servicing the customer.
00:12:40 Or when you look at digital nudges based on data,
00:12:44 or use of AI/ML, use of RPA in terms of how are you handling
00:12:49 customer queries--
00:12:50 and most of the regular queries are not
00:12:52 handled by humans anymore.
00:12:54 How are you using AI/ML for core underwriting,
00:12:57 at least for the most standard cases of underwriting
00:13:00 which don't require human intervention at all?
00:13:03 So this is now embedded into everything
00:13:06 that we do in life insurance today.
00:13:08 Right, of course, like you said, the chatbots and everything,
00:13:14 all of that has become a reality.
00:13:16 But what I also mean to say-- and, Kanan,
00:13:18 I'll ask you that-- that customers also
00:13:22 have a little more expectation in terms
00:13:24 of not just interactions, but even the kind of products
00:13:28 or customizations that they may want to look forward to,
00:13:32 especially when it comes to life insurance.
00:13:34 So what are the plans to deal with those kind of demands
00:13:38 or expectations?
00:13:41 Thank you, Nidhi, for, first of all, having me here.
00:13:44 And good morning to all of you.
00:13:46 And let me join Vibha in congratulating Outlook Money.
00:13:50 25 years is not an easy thing.
00:13:53 To be surviving and thriving in a competitive industry
00:13:56 like yours or ours, it's a big achievement.
00:14:01 And congratulations, and many more happy returns of the day.
00:14:04 So let me take your question.
00:14:06 You said that customer expectations are
00:14:10 changing a little bit.
00:14:11 I think that's an understatement.
00:14:12 The customer expectations have changed hugely.
00:14:16 Why I say that is, if you look at it from a customer lens,
00:14:20 first of all, the need for insurance
00:14:23 has become much more today compared
00:14:26 to what it was earlier.
00:14:27 Partly, one could say, is driven by the volatility
00:14:30 in the markets, as well as the pandemic-related uncertainty
00:14:33 in life in general.
00:14:35 So that is one area where I feel that the need and awareness is
00:14:39 much more than what it was before.
00:14:41 That can always become bigger and better.
00:14:45 The second is that customers are also
00:14:48 very choosy and careful about what they are buying,
00:14:52 what kind of--
00:14:54 what is being promised by the industry across every field.
00:14:58 And then be aware about what they are buying
00:15:00 and what they are not buying.
00:15:02 I think the awareness in terms of the category
00:15:04 itself is much more than before.
00:15:06 Third, I think general ecosystem in the country,
00:15:09 if you look at the digital and the technology ecosystem,
00:15:11 it's evolved so much.
00:15:12 Example, the payment space, look at.
00:15:14 So naturally, those expectations get carried
00:15:16 to any category you buy.
00:15:18 Vibha talked about how we buy other categories.
00:15:22 Same thing is happening here also.
00:15:24 And you have overlay that with the general awareness
00:15:27 about the pricing.
00:15:28 You have these aggregators today.
00:15:30 If you just do a Google search, you
00:15:32 know the term price of all the four companies sitting here.
00:15:35 So all in all, huge expectations from the customers
00:15:38 on how we want to behave in terms of product design,
00:15:40 sales, everything.
00:15:42 So that is a fact.
00:15:43 So your question is that how do we
00:15:44 handle as an industry in this kind of situation?
00:15:48 I would say two things.
00:15:49 One, I think we'll have to constantly, internally disrupt
00:15:52 ourselves.
00:15:53 You know, the traditional way of doing things, be it policy
00:15:56 buying or servicing or claims, I think
00:15:58 we'll have to keep questioning it ourselves.
00:16:00 And secondly is that external collaboration.
00:16:04 I would just put these two as a key.
00:16:07 I mean, I'm sure there are much more.
00:16:08 But these two things are key.
00:16:10 So let me elaborate on the first one.
00:16:12 Internal means that get your data scientist in play.
00:16:15 Look at what is the data available around you.
00:16:18 Customer data, the customer doesn't have to give any more.
00:16:20 They have to just give a consent.
00:16:22 All the customer data is somewhere in the ecosystem,
00:16:24 digital ecosystem and the digital stack of the government.
00:16:27 So if you just take a consent, and then
00:16:30 keep the data flowing into the company and analyze it.
00:16:35 For example, the credit bureau data.
00:16:38 And I have an analogy.
00:16:39 If you have a digi-yatra, where you can walk into an airport
00:16:42 without giving anything there, seeing your face,
00:16:44 you get into the security directly.
00:16:46 Why can't we do that in policies, life policy?
00:16:49 Because that ecosystem talks to the other database,
00:16:52 talks to the airline, talks to the airport,
00:16:54 and face becomes a common sort of identifier.
00:16:58 And then it's so easy to live for the customer.
00:17:01 So same thing is available for life insurance.
00:17:02 Get the customer data, link it with the EC, KYC,
00:17:05 link it with Aadhaar, link it with credit bureau.
00:17:08 And then potentially the health database of the country.
00:17:11 And we should be able to make the ease of buying a reality
00:17:15 in life insurance through these kind of means.
00:17:18 That is very important from the customer perspective.
00:17:20 So this is what I would say is the key thing in terms
00:17:23 of what we want to achieve.
00:17:24 And the customers seem to be ready for that kind of--
00:17:27 Of course.
00:17:28 --data sharing.
00:17:29 In reality, I'm not saying it in a negative way.
00:17:31 They are spoiled for choice today.
00:17:33 Plus in terms of ease of doing things
00:17:34 through a QR code payment space, look at the way it has evolved.
00:17:37 So they are exposed to that.
00:17:38 So if we keep thinking that this is the way, traditionally,
00:17:41 I'm running the business, that's not going to work.
00:17:43 And to a large extent, we also in the near future
00:17:46 will continue to be an intermediated industry.
00:17:50 I don't think we are going to become 100% direct industry.
00:17:53 Predominantly, last mile will be covered by our distributors.
00:17:55 So it's important for our distributors
00:17:57 also to understand the customer expectations
00:17:59 and technologically enable the way they sell their service
00:18:02 so that they also look smart in front of the customers whose
00:18:04 expectations are growing.
00:18:06 So I think these are some of the areas where, like Viva said,
00:18:09 life insurance companies have really, really done
00:18:11 a lot of innovation.
00:18:12 Maybe we don't talk about it too much.
00:18:15 We would rather not talk about it too much
00:18:17 and deliver what is required for the customers.
00:18:19 But you should also accept that unlike general insurance
00:18:23 industry, insurance buying and selling
00:18:25 is a bit more involved, buying and selling.
00:18:28 When a person buys a 30-year-old--
00:18:31 sorry, 30-year, 40-year product, you cannot walk out of it
00:18:34 in one or two years.
00:18:35 Whereas in other categories, you can actually
00:18:36 go for a renewal and go to a different service provider
00:18:39 at the time of renewal.
00:18:40 That's not to be here.
00:18:41 So maybe people want to understand.
00:18:42 They want to understand that when I'm not there,
00:18:45 will this company survive to pay my family?
00:18:47 Then it becomes a little more involved selling.
00:18:50 So kind of an on-the-fly innovation.
00:18:54 You may not be seeing it.
00:18:55 But beyond that, given the category constraints,
00:18:58 innovation has been enormous, both on the product side,
00:19:00 as Viva said, and also on the process side.
00:19:02 So these are some of the aspects of what
00:19:04 we are doing in the context of the customer expectation.
00:19:06 And external, just last point, I said second category,
00:19:09 external collaboration.
00:19:11 I think everything cannot be done internally.
00:19:13 There are so many ecosystem players in technology.
00:19:15 Collaboration is the way to go.
00:19:17 And collaboration comes naturally to this industry
00:19:19 because the distribution side, we
00:19:20 have been collaborating with our distributors.
00:19:22 Same thing we'll have to carry to the digital side
00:19:24 in terms of startups, in terms of some of the new tools
00:19:27 and techniques which are there.
00:19:29 Just collaborate with them.
00:19:31 And if the government goes and gives us
00:19:34 an ability to form subsidiaries or getting
00:19:37 into those kind of value-added services, which we hope
00:19:40 will happen in the near future, that
00:19:42 opens up a different opportunity for us
00:19:45 in terms of integrating with the skin in the game
00:19:47 in terms of doing this innovation.
00:19:49 So do you see any such collaborations going forward,
00:19:51 like in the immediate future?
00:19:53 Already happening a lot in terms of a partnership.
00:19:56 But I think a collaboration with skin in the game
00:19:58 can happen in terms of owning those companies
00:20:01 or making them subsidiaries and integrating it seamlessly
00:20:03 to our own operations through possibly the proposed
00:20:06 amendment in the insurance bill or any other regulatory
00:20:10 measures and the government measures which
00:20:12 are being talked about.
00:20:13 So it's an exciting time as we move forward.
00:20:15 Thank you.
00:20:16 So Karan, of course, talked about internal disruptions
00:20:20 also.
00:20:20 So taking off from that, Mahesh, does the insurance industry
00:20:24 also need to look at, say, redesigning products itself
00:20:29 and the whole distribution ecosystem?
00:20:34 Yes, congratulations on completing 25 years.
00:20:37 And also, thank you for having me on the panel.
00:20:41 See, the question is that, do we need to change products?
00:20:45 We have been changing products.
00:20:47 And if you look at the innovations that
00:20:49 have come in the product space, you
00:20:51 will find that a huge amount of innovation
00:20:54 has come in products.
00:20:56 But then, till now, most of the regulations
00:21:00 had been straitjacketed.
00:21:02 They were very aligned to traditional way of thinking.
00:21:07 Now we see that the regulator has
00:21:09 got so many new ideas coming up and so many new regulations.
00:21:15 I think, Karnan is also on the committee
00:21:17 that is looking at the easing of the regulations.
00:21:21 And then you're going to come down from 79 regulations to 10.
00:21:26 So when you look at that, you also
00:21:29 see that you're going from a prescriptive regime
00:21:33 to a more principle-based regime.
00:21:37 But once you do that, then creativity can kick in.
00:21:40 Earlier, many of the things, many innovations
00:21:43 were not possible because everything was prescriptive.
00:21:47 So you had a very similar kind of products.
00:21:50 Even within that, you find a huge amount of innovation
00:21:53 that has been brought in.
00:21:55 And that is the way to go.
00:21:58 Going forward, I think we'll find more and more
00:22:01 innovative products.
00:22:02 The other thing is, as you collaborate
00:22:04 with the new age companies, the disruptors,
00:22:09 so-called disruptors, as technology
00:22:13 enables us to give more customization, more
00:22:17 analyzed data, and use more analyzed data,
00:22:21 as regulation will allow us to pull and use
00:22:25 data from various sources.
00:22:27 And as these sources become available,
00:22:31 I think it is a step in the direction of customizing
00:22:37 products, making products more and more suited
00:22:40 to each individual, and pitching these products to them.
00:22:43 So for example, today, if you were
00:22:47 to know what kind of customer is buying what kind of product,
00:22:53 and what is the feature that is clicking with them,
00:22:56 with the data that you have available with us
00:23:02 and with our distribution partners,
00:23:05 but also the kind of data that is available in terms of KYC,
00:23:10 the income data that is available,
00:23:12 if you could fetch all that data,
00:23:14 and you have this account aggregator model coming in,
00:23:18 a lot of financial data is now available.
00:23:21 With all that, you will be able to pitch
00:23:24 these customized products to each and every individual.
00:23:29 So that will be the key driver going forward.
00:23:33 So are there any examples of such products?
00:23:35 Because the regulator has also cleared immediate filing
00:23:39 and can use and file that kind of regulation.
00:23:42 So is there something in mind, something
00:23:46 that our audience might be interested in?
00:23:49 Yes, so what we do right now is we
00:23:51 analyze the data that we already have,
00:23:54 and the data that we have access to.
00:23:56 And then there is a lot of data out there,
00:23:58 like for example, Google does, or various platforms.
00:24:02 They do the analysis in an anonymous manner.
00:24:05 They provide you with the information of what--
00:24:09 and the pitching is happening that way.
00:24:11 There is a lot of pitching that is happening on social media,
00:24:15 on the web.
00:24:17 All those things are already happening.
00:24:19 So that customization to that extent is already happening.
00:24:22 But then what we are talking about
00:24:24 is that we would be able to then design products and specifically
00:24:29 target people who would be needing those products
00:24:36 and who would probably feel the need the moment they
00:24:40 are missed these products.
00:24:41 So it will be a very, very, very higher level of customization
00:24:47 that will be going on.
00:24:48 So pitching is something that is coming out
00:24:52 of the conversation on how products are sold.
00:24:55 So Kamlesh, the next question is to you.
00:24:57 So in this scenario, the distribution community
00:25:01 or the way the distribution channels maybe
00:25:04 have to be rethought about how they can approach customers
00:25:09 with new strategies, with new products,
00:25:11 because already there's so much confusion.
00:25:14 There is a lot of issues that people have in buying products.
00:25:17 So what are the things that can be done on that front,
00:25:20 on the distribution front?
00:25:22 Good morning, everybody.
00:25:23 And thank you for having us here.
00:25:26 I've been looking at the average age of this panel.
00:25:28 It's nice to be on a new age disruptors panel for sure.
00:25:32 And congratulations for your 25 years.
00:25:35 You started by saying, I don't know.
00:25:37 And we immediately took that personally.
00:25:39 And I'm happy she did that.
00:25:41 Because in the two years, even in COVID time
00:25:42 when the world was shut, I don't think the 15,000 crores
00:25:46 worth of claims that were paid and not one issue
00:25:49 that you would have seen in the marketplace
00:25:50 is an example of whether you really come of age
00:25:53 or not come of age.
00:25:54 And I think if you divide the product thing
00:25:59 and the processing, I think the processing
00:26:01 of the life insurance industry is seriously new age today.
00:26:05 Whether it's the underwriting, whether it
00:26:07 be the way the claims is processed,
00:26:08 whether it's the way the selling happens.
00:26:10 Because when the world was shut, insurance business
00:26:13 still grew at 10% to 15% year over year
00:26:16 for the last two years kind of time frame.
00:26:18 The question on products that you asked, Mahesh,
00:26:21 I just want to think.
00:26:22 There are products today which compete
00:26:25 with various financial services.
00:26:26 I know for a fact that Viva has a product which
00:26:29 competes with the mutual fund FFPs.
00:26:31 I have a product which competes with fixed deposits
00:26:34 of the bank.
00:26:34 And they do these things.
00:26:35 Banks distribute those fixed deposits for us.
00:26:40 I think I will say maybe we don't scream and shout
00:26:42 as much as we need to.
00:26:44 Maybe we'll take that and try and do it through you
00:26:47 in this forum and maybe a little more.
00:26:49 But I think the distribution space,
00:26:53 if you look at what's happening in the last two or three years
00:26:55 time, banks have become very large distributors,
00:26:58 apart from, of course, the agency
00:27:00 that Karan has spoke about.
00:27:02 We've done a lot to make sure the process becomes
00:27:05 quicker and faster.
00:27:06 We no longer-- there's a myth that insurance
00:27:08 is sold and not bought.
00:27:10 You look at the bank distribution today,
00:27:12 they have data of their customers.
00:27:14 We have very good data models which actually tell you
00:27:18 when a company is supposed to be sold a product, which
00:27:20 is the product I should send to her.
00:27:22 So I'm not sending to you.
00:27:24 I'm telling you which are the two products, ideally,
00:27:26 that you should buy and what is meant for you.
00:27:29 And all of us do that.
00:27:30 Today, it's about anywhere between 25% to 33%
00:27:34 of our business.
00:27:35 That portfolio for us has had zero complaints
00:27:38 in the last two and a half years.
00:27:40 So data and analytics has reached a very different scale.
00:27:43 And that's why the distributors today
00:27:46 go to a customer knowing what is it
00:27:48 that I should present to him, rather than sitting with him
00:27:51 and doing a need analysis all over again.
00:27:53 So I think data has reached a very different stage.
00:27:55 What we need to graduate from is the point
00:27:58 that Karan was making, to say, will I
00:28:00 get sold when you're buying food on Swiggy or Zomato?
00:28:04 Or will I get bought when you buy tickets for Tokemai
00:28:08 Shop?
00:28:08 And I think that's the space that you
00:28:10 ought to start thinking about.
00:28:12 Hopefully, we should be the disruptor,
00:28:15 not get disrupted by anybody else.
00:28:17 But you ought to be careful about the fact
00:28:19 that when we offer some of these products,
00:28:22 all of the products that we sell are
00:28:24 products which the customer pays for 10, 15 years
00:28:27 and gets a benefit over the next 30, 40.
00:28:29 So how much of simplification will you be able to build in,
00:28:31 I think, is important.
00:28:33 IM, the health industry, is doing a great job in that area.
00:28:36 Today, you get health insurance if you're
00:28:38 on a ride with Polar, which is possible.
00:28:41 But can I sell life with that ride on Polar
00:28:43 as a function of the economics of the ride that he's buying?
00:28:45 And therefore, it needs to fit in.
00:28:47 Right.
00:28:47 That's why the question was that how do you
00:28:49 plan to increase life?
00:28:51 Because in a way, of course, general insurance
00:28:54 makes it easier.
00:28:56 Yeah, but you're buying, in general, that one year product.
00:28:59 You pay for one year.
00:29:00 I mean, if I start selling a life cover for one year,
00:29:03 I don't know who in this room will buy.
00:29:05 Because you want to make sure you're buying today
00:29:07 a younger for a life cover till you are 80.
00:29:09 If I were to give you that product,
00:29:11 then I don't know that I can build it
00:29:12 into the ride in the Ola or no.
00:29:14 We will make an attempt.
00:29:15 But I'm saying it's a function of what we'll get, what.
00:29:18 And that's the part I was making.
00:29:20 I mean, you get savings from us today
00:29:22 that we offer, which are, frankly,
00:29:25 tax adjusted better than some of the returns
00:29:28 you may get on vision-funded funds.
00:29:30 But you have to make sure you understand what you're doing.
00:29:33 You pay me for 10 years' time.
00:29:34 I will guarantee you the income for the next 40, 50 years.
00:29:37 I think we'll have to work harder to simplify.
00:29:39 So I'm not saying we don't have that in our mindset.
00:29:43 But I'm only saying to what extent will that happen
00:29:45 is a function of what we are selling
00:29:47 and the execution and delivery of that on the platforms
00:29:49 that you're talking about.
00:29:51 How is the persistency right now,
00:29:52 if I may ask, I think it's--
00:29:54 we are talking about these long commitments in life insurance.
00:29:58 Persistency, for all of us, if you
00:30:01 look at the life insurance industry,
00:30:02 is just getting better and better.
00:30:05 You will find both of the guys in the top 10
00:30:08 to be above 80%, 85% on 30-month persistency.
00:30:12 Like we all mentioned, the great part
00:30:14 is a large amount of this money is coming digitally.
00:30:18 Close to 100% of your business today is sold on AutoPay.
00:30:21 All this was not like this about three years back.
00:30:23 If you get business on AutoPay today,
00:30:25 then you can be sure that 95% of these guys
00:30:27 will be, again, their future premiums and so on and so forth.
00:30:30 So my sense is, where you are today,
00:30:31 if you look at where you were three years back,
00:30:33 there's a remarkable change.
00:30:35 My sense is it will only get better with time.
00:30:38 Sure.
00:30:39 So coming back to you, Vibha, we've
00:30:41 been talking about a lot of these things
00:30:44 where interactions are digitalized
00:30:46 and customers are approached directly.
00:30:49 But life insurance is also a lot about this balance
00:30:53 between human touch and technology,
00:30:56 because it is--
00:30:58 traditionally, the agents have been convincing people about,
00:31:01 or explaining the concepts.
00:31:03 So how does that balance happen in this changing scenario?
00:31:07 See, I'm of the--
00:31:09 in the camp that insurance is equally an emotional buy
00:31:13 and not only a cerebral buy.
00:31:15 It's made out to be about term rates and IRRs.
00:31:18 Ultimately, people buy insurance because one
00:31:21 is afraid of something and want to transfer some of the risk
00:31:25 so that you can sleep peacefully at night.
00:31:27 And that's why our focus on mortality, morbidity,
00:31:30 longevity kind of concepts, rather than only managing
00:31:33 money.
00:31:35 So if that is the hypothesis, then one equally
00:31:38 has to look at how does one increase the awareness that
00:31:42 is one, which is what any kind of awareness drives that we do,
00:31:46 whether it's through advertising,
00:31:47 whether it is through our partners and so on.
00:31:51 And the second is brand consideration and insurance
00:31:54 consideration, both individually and as a sector.
00:31:58 And you'll see more in the new financial year,
00:32:02 us collectively doing things as a sector as well.
00:32:07 A little bit late to the game, admittedly,
00:32:09 but also some of it to be a little bit easier on us
00:32:12 was COVID and so on.
00:32:13 So you'll see some of that.
00:32:15 So that is that part.
00:32:16 So it's a combination of how do you nudge people
00:32:20 because the products are--
00:32:22 take a little bit more time, like what Kanishka was saying,
00:32:26 because of the nature of the product.
00:32:28 But the need for it doesn't go away.
00:32:29 So you have to increase that awareness.
00:32:33 So that's at the top of the funnel,
00:32:34 so you need to increase the funnel.
00:32:36 And then how it goes through and travels through the funnel
00:32:40 is what we all talked about, about ease of onboarding,
00:32:43 using data, analytics, and so on.
00:32:46 At the same time, we have to be cognizant
00:32:49 that risks are not static because, again, it
00:32:53 goes back to my hypothesis or our hypothesis
00:32:56 that it is an emotional buy.
00:32:57 And so this is very closely correlated
00:33:00 with socioeconomic changes, demographic changes, and so on.
00:33:04 Earlier, insurance used to be in the form of joint family,
00:33:07 at least away from the top 10 cities.
00:33:10 Insurance was in the form of HUF.
00:33:13 It was a proxy.
00:33:14 Insurance was in the form of physical assets,
00:33:16 gold and real estate being very favored long-term assets
00:33:20 in the event of any catastrophe for the family.
00:33:25 Now, I think all of us in this panel
00:33:28 here are likely to probably live permanently with our kids.
00:33:32 That has happened in one generation.
00:33:34 We want to live close by, hopefully,
00:33:35 but even that might not happen, which means that--
00:33:38 sorry, and also juxtaposed with that,
00:33:40 it's a good problem to have that people are now
00:33:42 outliving their retirement age by at least 25 years
00:33:45 and growing.
00:33:47 Inflation is not going away in a hurry.
00:33:48 So these are not demographic and macroeconomic changes.
00:33:51 They're just about insurance.
00:33:53 Why am I giving a long answer?
00:33:54 Because all of this is our job to nudge people, to say,
00:34:00 have you thought about this?
00:34:01 Have you thought about that?
00:34:02 As against, I have a product that I'm
00:34:04 going to push you through my distribution.
00:34:07 We do that too.
00:34:07 But I think how do you convert slowly
00:34:11 from being a push to a pull, at least for certain types?
00:34:14 Term is one, retirement on the other spectrum is another.
00:34:18 So those sorts of things.
00:34:19 Earlier, kids used to be one.
00:34:21 So these are some of the aspects which
00:34:23 will ensure that how we design products
00:34:26 and how we design journeys and how we give that experience
00:34:29 to the customer is also intertwined to your point
00:34:32 about how do people think about various aspects which
00:34:34 nudge customers into it.
00:34:36 So as insurers, we do spend a lot of our mind
00:34:40 share on some of these other ecosystem things of how
00:34:44 are Indians thinking about it, both
00:34:46 on the top end of the funnel and equally, if not more important,
00:34:50 on the missing middle of tier two, three towns.
00:34:53 How is that happening?
00:34:55 In a similar-- because when you look at the number of high end
00:34:57 cars in the Aurangabad, Nashik, Tilpur, and so on,
00:35:02 this is staggering numbers of wealth that is domestic driven.
00:35:08 And hence, the need also.
00:35:10 So all of those things.
00:35:11 And also, the regulators looking at how
00:35:13 do we take it to the slightly lower end in terms of BIMA,
00:35:16 Vistar, and BIMA, various other initiatives.
00:35:20 So it's really all of that which will get to the end customer
00:35:24 by increasing the top of the funnel.
00:35:27 So distribution network is something
00:35:29 that I guess the industry has to work for if we are to service
00:35:34 the dynamically, like you mentioned, Vima.
00:35:36 So Mahesh, how is that balance being
00:35:42 thought about between customer interest,
00:35:44 like we talked about there, the whole emotion convincing
00:35:47 and everything, and plus the distributor
00:35:50 requirements in this changing scenario,
00:35:52 and the need to expand?
00:35:54 See, the customer-- you have to keep the customer at the center.
00:36:00 Because any product that will--
00:36:03 any product that the customer needs
00:36:06 is what will drive the industry.
00:36:08 So if you provide the things that the customer needs,
00:36:11 maybe the needs, they don't know about,
00:36:14 but you have to make them aware of it.
00:36:16 So one of the things about making people aware,
00:36:20 having a campaign, industry-wide campaign,
00:36:22 or also from the side of the companies
00:36:26 that we also work on trying to increase
00:36:29 the awareness, and also our agents and the distribution.
00:36:34 When they reach out to the customer,
00:36:37 they [INAUDIBLE]
00:36:39 They show them what their need is,
00:36:42 and at this point of time, what kind of insurance
00:36:44 they require, and then that is how we sell the products.
00:36:47 So that customer has to be kept in the center.
00:36:51 The distribution is very important,
00:36:53 because it's a very different product itself.
00:36:57 I've said this before also, but you are talking about death.
00:37:01 In India, nobody wants to talk about death.
00:37:03 We just say something like, oh, if something happens,
00:37:08 or something untoward happens.
00:37:10 Basically, it is very simple.
00:37:12 If the customer is dead, what happens to his family?
00:37:14 So that proposition is a very difficult proposition.
00:37:17 These are the people, the distribution,
00:37:20 these are the people who go and talk to people about this.
00:37:24 So the distributor is a very important part of this.
00:37:28 Absolutely, and even in convincing the importance
00:37:30 of--
00:37:31 Yeah, so that is the answer to your question
00:37:33 on general insurance and life insurance.
00:37:36 The difference is that general insurance is a very, very much
00:37:42 easier thing to talk about when you're
00:37:44 talking about a mobile phone cover rating or something.
00:37:47 So when you're buying, say, bananas,
00:37:49 and you want to say that, OK, you
00:37:52 can buy a mobile phone cover on that for, say, whatever rupees.
00:37:58 It's a small distribution.
00:38:00 Whereas when you're talking about life insurance,
00:38:02 it's a very major distribution.
00:38:04 There are many aspects to it that people have to think about.
00:38:07 And here, the distributor is actually
00:38:09 helping the customer not only understand his needs,
00:38:13 but also in selecting the products.
00:38:15 So it's not just that the distributor
00:38:18 is going and selling a product.
00:38:20 The distributor also functions on the other side
00:38:26 of giving feedback to the company.
00:38:29 A lot of the feedback that we get
00:38:31 where we introduce innovations to products
00:38:33 or we introduce new products comes from the distribution
00:38:36 where we talk to the people and understand what is happening.
00:38:40 So keeping the distributor happy is very important.
00:38:43 And he has to be rewarded.
00:38:45 And out here, we have covered not even a few percent
00:38:51 of the range of protection requirement of the country.
00:38:55 So to cover the very 82%, it's going
00:38:59 to take a lot of time and effort.
00:39:01 And the distribution is very critical to that.
00:39:05 And therefore, we need to have a technologically
00:39:10 innovative distribution.
00:39:12 And we also need to offer distribution that people want.
00:39:16 But it's a totally different thing.
00:39:18 You buy bananas.
00:39:19 It doesn't come out.
00:39:20 I buy bananas at home.
00:39:22 And 20 minutes, the bananas are delivered at my home.
00:39:26 If it is not good, I can just dump the bananas.
00:39:28 So it's sort of a thing about that I need to worry about.
00:39:31 But if I buy insurance like that, life insurance,
00:39:35 it may be that after 30 years, my family
00:39:37 doesn't get any protection.
00:39:38 So that is what I wanted in the first place.
00:39:41 I have to turn it--
00:39:43 the experience is totally different.
00:39:46 Technology will enable us to do the analysis, who did what,
00:39:51 how do we reach out to them.
00:39:53 So now I have an agent with Kerala in COVID
00:39:57 who started this idea of customer relations
00:40:00 programs as a webinar.
00:40:02 So she used to organize a webinar for 10 customers, 15
00:40:05 customers, call them all, tell them
00:40:07 that I'm going to be on this platform,
00:40:10 and then can you join me on that.
00:40:12 And then she would explain the products.
00:40:14 And it caught on really well.
00:40:16 And we were able to continue to do that.
00:40:18 So technology will help us in that.
00:40:20 The distribution is going to be similar.
00:40:22 What we have seen in very developed countries in Europe,
00:40:26 what we have seen in the East also, Japan, China,
00:40:30 is that general insurance, there's
00:40:32 a lot of innovation that's happened out there also.
00:40:34 Click and buy kind of thing.
00:40:36 But here, the click and buy is going to be more detailed.
00:40:40 And it's going to be specific products.
00:40:42 So today we have sold--
00:40:44 7 lakh people we have covered this year on the Europe platform
00:40:49 in SBI by three clicks.
00:40:51 So they just go to the platform, have three clicks,
00:40:55 and buy life insurance.
00:40:57 But that is a term policy for a certain amount.
00:41:01 And then you have to-- it's an annual payment
00:41:03 that you have to make.
00:41:05 But for the remaining part of the industry,
00:41:08 all the products are very complex.
00:41:10 And I think we still need a lot of distribution to do that.
00:41:16 Right.
00:41:17 So more nuance and more complexity
00:41:18 in life insurance products, of course.
00:41:20 And that is perhaps one of the reasons
00:41:22 why the distribution needs to be more sensitive than perhaps
00:41:27 it is now.
00:41:28 Maybe it is already moving in that direction.
00:41:30 But coming to the needs and requirements of people,
00:41:35 right now we are also in the middle of an economic turmoil.
00:41:38 So you think, Amlesh, life insurance policies
00:41:42 can provide some kind of stability also in these times?
00:41:45 Because there are some traditional products
00:41:47 that-- of course, the mortality cost always
00:41:50 remains a matter of debate when you
00:41:53 look at life insurance as an investment.
00:41:55 What are your views to that?
00:41:57 You know, this issue on costs has been a big discussion.
00:42:02 And I just want to bring that with me
00:42:04 because I've been on the other side distributing
00:42:06 non-insurance products too.
00:42:07 I think you ought to look at a time frame.
00:42:09 It's like saying, you think putting money in a mutual fund
00:42:12 is cheaper than putting money in a unit fund of life insurance.
00:42:16 But I think a time frame is important.
00:42:18 If you look at a time frame of eight, nine years,
00:42:21 I think the cost will become even better.
00:42:23 And I can tell you, not many people may not like it.
00:42:27 But on a 10-year basis, fund return performance
00:42:30 of the insurance industry will perhaps
00:42:32 beat any mutual fund manager on any statistics.
00:42:36 So I think today, life insurance,
00:42:39 apart from protection-- and there is data
00:42:41 to say for every 100 rupees that the entire industry pays
00:42:44 every year, about 4 and 1/2 rupees is paid for death.
00:42:47 And the balance, 95 and 1/2 rupees
00:42:49 is actually paid on maturity.
00:42:51 So much so today that wealth management firms
00:42:54 and wealth management institutes of banks
00:42:56 today sell a lot of life insurance
00:42:58 because they have become now an asset class
00:43:01 in the financial planning of an individual.
00:43:03 So to me, I'm not saying any product is right or wrong.
00:43:07 But we have reached a stage where we think on products
00:43:11 like what we offer guaranteed returns for, say,
00:43:14 30 years, 40 years is an important asset class
00:43:17 for any individual, whether it be mass, mass affluent,
00:43:20 or even the HNI.
00:43:22 And we've reached that state.
00:43:23 As today, it's about one third of the business that we do.
00:43:26 And that, increasingly, if you are
00:43:28 looking at various asset classes like fixed deposits, equities,
00:43:32 we've reached a stage where not just protection,
00:43:35 but some of the savings products that we do
00:43:38 are an important part of the asset class of all individuals.
00:43:41 So as we come to the end of the discussion,
00:43:44 almost, Kanan, like Kamlesh was also mentioning,
00:43:47 and return versus protection is always
00:43:49 a debate in life insurance.
00:43:51 And I think it's here to stay for some time.
00:43:53 But do you think, coming back to the tech interventions
00:43:55 that we've been talking about, will it
00:43:57 make any difference to that?
00:43:59 Or can it solve that debate or address
00:44:01 that debate in any way?
00:44:03 Yeah, thanks for asking this question
00:44:05 because I have a slightly different point of view
00:44:08 on this debate of return versus protection and so on.
00:44:13 And you didn't ask me that, but generally, when
00:44:15 I see in the market, there's a lot of comparison
00:44:17 between what is life insurance versus fixed deposits
00:44:19 versus mutual funds.
00:44:21 Frankly, I find this comparison quite uninformed.
00:44:24 And if I may say so, actually specious.
00:44:27 Why I say that is, if you just step back and look
00:44:30 at our industry, what are we providing to the customer?
00:44:33 We are providing long-term financial security
00:44:36 to the families.
00:44:38 And I would add a caveat to say that whether the customer
00:44:40 exists or not.
00:44:42 This is a very important statement of what we provide
00:44:46 in the context of what is happening in the financial
00:44:49 services space.
00:44:50 I don't think any other category can provide this.
00:44:53 Then, how do we deliver this to the customer?
00:44:55 There are two vehicles through which this gets
00:44:57 carried through.
00:44:58 One is a savings platform, the other is a protection platform.
00:45:01 Savings platform, what is the fundamental thing
00:45:03 about the savings platform is that you have
00:45:05 a particular goal.
00:45:06 The customer has a goal, maybe 30 years, 20 years
00:45:09 down the line.
00:45:10 And it has to be a goal-based savings.
00:45:12 So the customer starts saving today.
00:45:15 And if the customer, he or she doesn't exist during
00:45:18 this period, still the goal is achieved by the family.
00:45:21 So every single product in the savings space in the
00:45:24 life insurance industry is having a cover of
00:45:26 long-term protection.
00:45:27 I think this is missed out in even the policy debates
00:45:30 or any of the other debates around tax, various things.
00:45:33 This is completely missed out.
00:45:34 So once we define it this way, then what is the
00:45:36 savings platform achieving?
00:45:38 Then the savings itself, the needs could be different
00:45:40 across the categories of customers.
00:45:42 Some people may say that I don't mind taking the
00:45:44 volatility of the markets, go to ULM.
00:45:46 Some people may say I want a higher guaranteed return,
00:45:49 go to non-linked guaranteed products.
00:45:51 Or I want to have a bit of both, some downside protection,
00:45:54 a little bit of, and then go to the participating product.
00:45:57 So once we define it this way, there's no debate really.
00:46:00 And then you go to the right side, which is the protection.
00:46:03 And protection is also defined in a different way.
00:46:05 There you say that I'm not yet prepared for a
00:46:07 goal-based savings because I don't think I have so
00:46:09 much of disposable income, but I want to protect the
00:46:12 downside for my family by taking a term policy because
00:46:16 that's the cheapest way you can protect your family
00:46:19 for certain basic needs without having to spend
00:46:22 too much of money.
00:46:23 And the younger you are, better because mortality
00:46:25 charges are, I mean, there's no need for comparison
00:46:28 because they're very insignificant in a country like ours.
00:46:31 Or you say I've taken a housing loan, and if I die,
00:46:35 I don't want the family to be saddled with the loan,
00:46:37 they want to take the house.
00:46:38 So you do the liability protection.
00:46:40 So once we do this, I think the category is very clear.
00:46:44 This is where we operate as a life insurance industry.
00:46:48 But that's primarily term insurance,
00:46:50 because that is the simplest form.
00:46:52 Can I also talk about this debate about returns versus flexion?
00:46:56 That's what I'm saying.
00:46:57 So don't go to the debate at all because you're saying
00:46:59 you're giving the long-term financial security for the family
00:47:02 whether the breadwinner exists or not during this time.
00:47:05 When you do that, then you come to the savings as a platform.
00:47:08 Every savings product has got a multiple of your
00:47:10 annual premium as a protection.
00:47:13 So this to me is the key.
00:47:15 Then there's no debate.
00:47:16 How does it matter, return?
00:47:17 How does it matter?
00:47:18 Yes, if somebody wants a return to say that, you know,
00:47:21 if I don't die, I want to get a large guaranteed income,
00:47:24 that's available.
00:47:25 Or I don't mind to take the volatility of the financial
00:47:28 security, that's also available.
00:47:29 In between, if something happens to me,
00:47:31 the outcome is given to the family.
00:47:33 It cannot happen in any other category.
00:47:35 Once you do that, there's no debate at all to me.
00:47:38 You decide whether you want money back or me.
00:47:41 It's better to use myself as an example.
00:47:43 If I die, then, you know, I want the family to get certain money.
00:47:48 It is available.
00:47:49 Which product gives you that thing?
00:47:51 The whole of the family is completely secure.
00:47:53 No other product gives this.
00:47:54 So then, if you want return, you go to such a product.
00:47:57 If you don't want any return, go to the term product.
00:47:59 Then there's no debate thereafter.
00:48:01 So I think this, again, I would say, like Kamlesh quoted me,
00:48:05 this, I think as an industry also,
00:48:07 we need to do a lot in terms of propagating this concept.
00:48:09 Then there's no fight with any other category in the country.
00:48:12 Then you ask the question of how tech can come into this.
00:48:15 To me, I say that, again, the customer data is available.
00:48:19 Customer life stages are well known.
00:48:21 When that is well known, between these two categories,
00:48:25 goal-based savings, what to sell at what stage of the life,
00:48:29 customer tech can play a huge role.
00:48:31 Kamlesh talked about the banks.
00:48:33 Banks have wealth of data.
00:48:35 If you find that new addition to the family,
00:48:37 in terms of a new arrival, then you can intervene at that time.
00:48:40 The responsibility increases.
00:48:41 You can sell a life, like a term product.
00:48:44 Or if there's a loan being taken, along with the loan,
00:48:46 you can sell a liability protection product.
00:48:48 Or if somebody says that, okay, I have enough disposable wealth,
00:48:51 how can I keep it in the long-term savings,
00:48:53 keeping the vagaries of the market outside?
00:48:56 Then you can buy a savings.
00:48:57 So the tech can come in, really, to customize what is required
00:49:00 at what stage of the customer's life.
00:49:02 I think that can play a big role.
00:49:04 Increasingly, companies are doing it.
00:49:06 I'm not saying companies are not doing it.
00:49:08 Tech can play an even bigger role,
00:49:10 in terms of triangulating the data and sell the right product
00:49:12 at the right time to the right customer.
00:49:14 That is where tech can play a role in this space.
00:49:17 Sorry, Mr. Mahesh, you wanted to say something.
00:49:20 I was just emphasizing what Kanthu was saying.
00:49:24 When you are building up your corpus for your family,
00:49:28 if you are in any other asset class,
00:49:31 if you die, the accumulation stops there.
00:49:36 You get whatever you have accumulated.
00:49:38 Here, you get a summer short, which is a multiple,
00:49:41 so you know, a unique policy.
00:49:43 A person takes, you know, I take a unique policy.
00:49:45 And I die within one year of taking that.
00:49:48 I get 10 times, my family gets 10 times that amount.
00:49:51 And this loss in other asset classes.
00:49:53 So that is what I was trying to emphasize.
00:49:55 Of course, I would agree that, you know,
00:49:57 life insurance as an asset class is something that is,
00:50:01 you know, absolutely necessary for every individual.
00:50:04 But protection, of course, is a very, very important thing.
00:50:08 And term insurance does that.
00:50:10 But anyway, coming to the end of this discussion,
00:50:14 I think we have had a lot of takeaways today.
00:50:17 Innovation and data explosion can play a major role
00:50:20 in how the insurance industry looks forward.
00:50:23 And thank you so much to our panelists
00:50:26 for having this discussion today
00:50:29 and sharing your knowledgeable opinions.
00:50:31 Thanks a lot.
00:50:32 Thank you to our power panel.
00:50:38 And Nidhi, thank you on behalf of all of us
00:50:41 for asking some very pertinent questions.
00:50:45 I think one thing that came clearly out of this conversation
00:50:48 is that reinvention continues in 2023
00:50:51 as the industry aims to ensure ongoing relevancy.
00:50:57 And we're all hyper-focused on modernization,
00:51:00 on digital transformation,
00:51:02 and innovation to boost customer centricity.
00:51:05 Before we move ahead with the event,
00:51:07 we would like to express our gratitude
00:51:10 to our esteemed sponsors of this event,
00:51:13 esteemed sponsors without whom
00:51:16 this event would not have been possible.
00:51:18 LIC of India, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance,
00:51:23 SBI Life Insurance Company Limited,
00:51:26 HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited,
00:51:28 HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Limited,
00:51:32 New India Assurance, Gratitim,
00:51:34 and our outreach partners,
00:51:37 IBAI and IAI.
00:51:40 Thank you very much.
00:51:42 Yes, I think we should definitely take a group photograph
00:51:47 of the power panel on stage
00:51:49 before you go on to do very important things of the day.
00:51:52 Nidhi?
00:51:53 Yes, please do.
00:51:54 All right, we've got our best shot.
00:51:56 Thank you very much.
00:51:58 And now, ladies and gentlemen,
00:52:01 it gives me immense pleasure to welcome you
00:52:04 to our Masterclass cum presentation
00:52:08 on Agents of Change.
00:52:10 Our speaker is a renowned management leader
00:52:12 and professional from the banking
00:52:14 and financial services industry.
00:52:17 He has worked in India, Japan, and the UK
00:52:19 and is currently the Chairman of the Board
00:52:21 of HDB Financial Services Limited,
00:52:24 a leading financial services firm
00:52:27 and a subsidiary of HDFC Bank Limited.
00:52:30 Apart from being associated with leading firms
00:52:33 like AZB Partners, Deloitte India,
00:52:36 he also has served as the Board Member
00:52:38 and Managing Director of India's largest bank,
00:52:41 State Bank of India,
00:52:43 and as the Managing Director and CEO
00:52:45 of SBI Life Insurance Company Limited.
00:52:48 His main interests lie in the areas of leadership,
00:52:52 organizational excellence,
00:52:53 corporate governance and risk management,
00:52:56 and organizational culture.
00:52:58 And he's here to give us a global perspective
00:53:02 that is indeed changing.
00:53:04 Agents of Change,
00:53:05 please join me in welcoming
00:53:06 Non-Executive Director, Prudential PLC,
00:53:09 Mr. Arijit Basu.
00:53:11 Good afternoon to everyone.
00:53:21 First of all, let me thank Nidhi
00:53:24 and the Outlook money team
00:53:27 for having invited me over here.
00:53:30 A real pleasure to be here
00:53:31 and congratulations, which I just came to know,
00:53:34 on the fact that Outlook money
00:53:37 has completed 25 years.
00:53:39 Truly a landmark event
00:53:40 and all the best to you.
00:53:42 At the outset, I have to say two things.
00:53:46 So I was very relaxed
00:53:48 when I got the invitation,
00:53:49 which was, I think, about a month back.
00:53:52 And then, very kindly,
00:53:56 she sent me some pointers also,
00:53:58 which I'll tell you what they were.
00:54:00 And I was happily under this notion
00:54:03 that it will be like a panel discussion.
00:54:06 And I'll be asked some questions
00:54:09 and you can always answer.
00:54:11 You had the real masters
00:54:13 answering you just five minutes back.
00:54:16 And then suddenly, a week back,
00:54:18 I realized that that's not the case
00:54:19 and I'm required to speak.
00:54:21 In fact, it will be intriguing
00:54:25 if some of the people who know me
00:54:28 from my school and college days,
00:54:30 where I don't know,
00:54:33 most of you probably were not that,
00:54:35 but I was a backbencher
00:54:37 and very happy at just somehow
00:54:40 going through the class
00:54:42 to be actually delivering
00:54:43 what is being touted as a master class.
00:54:46 So first of all,
00:54:47 let me start with the notion.
00:54:49 It's very, very humbling
00:54:51 and indeed, you feel very great
00:54:54 that you've been dubbed as that.
00:54:56 But at best, what I'll try to do,
00:54:59 is to make it as interactive as possible.
00:55:02 I'll perhaps try to confine myself
00:55:05 to about 15 to 20 minutes
00:55:08 and then open myself to questions.
00:55:10 And secondly, the task has been made
00:55:13 even more difficult by having
00:55:15 four of the largest companies here,
00:55:20 the three largest private insurers
00:55:22 and the three listed ones
00:55:23 were all represented by leaders
00:55:25 who all of you know
00:55:27 and who have achieved a lot for themselves.
00:55:30 And in fact, I was telling Mahesh
00:55:32 before he stepped out
00:55:34 that some of the things,
00:55:36 if not all,
00:55:37 had already been spoken and discussed.
00:55:40 So what I'll do is,
00:55:42 there were three areas
00:55:44 which I also thought was very relevant
00:55:46 for this overall topic of the summit,
00:55:49 which is disruption
00:55:51 and what is really disrupting things today.
00:55:54 And the first one is
00:55:55 what has been the main agents of change,
00:55:58 which Nidhi also had pointed out to me.
00:56:02 So, you know,
00:56:03 obviously the first thought
00:56:05 that comes to your mind is technology,
00:56:07 you know, and how is technology changing?
00:56:10 I would put it a little differently.
00:56:12 By now, if you are still thinking
00:56:14 how is technology changing,
00:56:16 there is something seriously wrong
00:56:17 and you are not going to survive
00:56:19 in any industry,
00:56:20 anywhere in the world,
00:56:21 I would even go to say that.
00:56:24 We are an emerging country still
00:56:27 with a lot of poor people,
00:56:28 but even in India,
00:56:30 you know, unless you bring
00:56:32 digital technology
00:56:34 at the core of your business,
00:56:36 at the core of your thought process,
00:56:38 you don't survive.
00:56:39 So it's not a question, say,
00:56:41 when I was in the industry,
00:56:42 in SBI Life from 2014 to 2018,
00:56:45 we probably still had that opportunity
00:56:49 to consider at what level
00:56:52 of technology adoption we were.
00:56:54 And in fact, in SBI Life,
00:56:56 we got that assessment done
00:56:58 by an outside agency
00:57:00 and we had done a few things,
00:57:02 but there were a lot more things to be done.
00:57:05 And that will always be the case,
00:57:08 that is the first point that I wish to make,
00:57:11 that will always be the case
00:57:13 with any good institution
00:57:16 in the financial sector or otherwise,
00:57:18 be it a bank,
00:57:19 the bank whom we thought two years back
00:57:22 is the leading bank
00:57:24 and brought about all innovations
00:57:26 in digital, etc.,
00:57:27 is after two years,
00:57:30 suddenly with changes
00:57:31 which have come about,
00:57:33 you know, found wanting.
00:57:36 We've heard of AI/ML,
00:57:39 but when ChatGPT took over,
00:57:43 and I don't know how many of you
00:57:44 have actually used it,
00:57:46 I just did it very briefly,
00:57:48 at least on surface,
00:57:49 it's very impressive.
00:57:50 There was, of course,
00:57:51 one very nice article
00:57:54 which I read on that,
00:57:56 which analyzed something
00:57:58 which ChatGPT had brought out
00:58:00 and said that basically
00:58:02 this was the question,
00:58:04 this was more academic,
00:58:05 and the answer that ChatGPT gave
00:58:07 was neither here nor there.
00:58:09 So, which is how you would expect AI,
00:58:11 but the potential of what
00:58:13 AI and ML can do is a given.
00:58:16 And India, I think the second point
00:58:19 that we all discuss is that
00:58:21 India has really, really evolved,
00:58:25 and in spite of, you know,
00:58:27 not being the strongest economy
00:58:29 in terms of per capita GDP,
00:58:31 what we have achieved in the digital
00:58:33 and technology eco-space,
00:58:35 and which moves into insurance,
00:58:37 is immense, which is a fact.
00:58:39 And you heard the CEOs responding,
00:58:43 life insurance is more difficult,
00:58:45 the last question which Nidhi had asked
00:58:47 the panel if you were present at that time,
00:58:50 was about, you know,
00:58:52 how much can life insurance
00:58:55 distributors add to it.
00:58:57 I will just add one more point,
00:58:59 that, as Kandan rightly put it,
00:59:03 you know, it's a very, very long term,
00:59:05 40 years, 30 years,
00:59:06 and even today, there is a need to
00:59:09 understand the product and service.
00:59:11 So, if you were to ask,
00:59:15 everyone talks about customer orientation,
00:59:18 how is the customer thinking about
00:59:20 the concern, or the firm,
00:59:23 and about the product,
00:59:25 but if you were to really ask
00:59:27 and survey the customer as to
00:59:29 what is the experience,
00:59:30 and I'm talking of all companies,
00:59:32 I may have moved on from insurance,
00:59:35 but I very much own the processes
00:59:40 and systems which have been built up
00:59:42 in SBI Life, or any of the others,
00:59:44 and the experiences.
00:59:46 So, is it still a seamless process,
00:59:51 right from the stage where you are
00:59:54 interacting with the client,
00:59:56 to the point where the claim is being made out.
01:00:01 I have received so many requests
01:00:04 from people across the country,
01:00:07 that, you know, this has gone wrong,
01:00:09 I didn't want to buy this product,
01:00:11 this is what the agent told me,
01:00:13 and this is what has happened,
01:00:14 and wherever it was possible,
01:00:16 we would then try to see
01:00:17 whom we know in the industry,
01:00:19 or that company, and try to.
01:00:21 So, there is, the point that I'm making is,
01:00:23 technology has been adopted by everyone.
01:00:26 In general insurance, as they pointed out,
01:00:30 it's easier to adopt.
01:00:32 However, even in life insurance,
01:00:35 the adoption has been there.
01:00:36 Analytics for digital is being used.
01:00:39 The ones who do it smarter,
01:00:41 are better off.
01:00:43 But, at the same time,
01:00:46 the scope for improvement is immense.
01:00:49 I know that this meet is being sponsored
01:00:53 by a technology company,
01:00:55 and there would be many techs here.
01:00:56 So, some heartwarming news for you,
01:00:58 the innovation that can still be done,
01:01:01 on various aspects,
01:01:03 using what is available in India,
01:01:05 India's stack,
01:01:07 the account aggregator,
01:01:09 NBFC system, the Samathi driven,
01:01:12 where you can use data from
01:01:15 multiple sources,
01:01:17 who log in to the Samathi system.
01:01:19 That potential, I think,
01:01:23 is hardly untapped in the insurance industry,
01:01:26 whether it is life or general.
01:01:28 Two other sobering thoughts on,
01:01:30 you know, what have been the major agents of change.
01:01:33 One is, when we speak of digital,
01:01:36 I am also proud that in India,
01:01:38 we have built up the ecosystem.
01:01:40 Very interestingly, I will not name the newspaper,
01:01:43 because this is, I am in a newspaper,
01:01:46 or print summit.
01:01:50 I read yesterday,
01:01:52 article, which was basically on the E-Rupee,
01:01:57 in one of the leading economic dailies.
01:02:00 It was a very well analysed article.
01:02:04 I am not getting into E-Rupee,
01:02:06 but it had two sets of data points,
01:02:10 which is relating to the adoption of digital.
01:02:13 We are very proud about digital payments.
01:02:16 Everyone does a UPI.
01:02:18 I sat here, there was a vegetable vendor,
01:02:21 who delivered something to our house,
01:02:24 my wife sent me a message,
01:02:26 and I made a Google Pay, in just 20 seconds.
01:02:28 Yes, it is very impressive.
01:02:30 But what is equally humbling,
01:02:34 is the stage at which we actually are.
01:02:37 If you can, I would recommend that you see
01:02:39 some of those tables, which were given out.
01:02:42 This table is on adoption of digital payment in the country.
01:02:46 You know, and this is 2022 data.
01:02:49 I looked at the source also,
01:02:51 just to be sure that this is not some,
01:02:53 so this is a World Bank source,
01:02:55 which the newspaper had quoted.
01:02:57 In Russia, the adoption is closer to 90%,
01:03:02 with the variation between the poor,
01:03:04 because they have also seen how much adoption is done
01:03:07 by the poorest 40%.
01:03:09 So the poorest 40% had only adopted about 5% less.
01:03:15 So almost the entire ecosystem in Russia,
01:03:18 more than 85% of the people adopt digital.
01:03:22 China is just behind, you know, 72-75%.
01:03:26 The other country, which India is often compared to,
01:03:29 two other countries, part of BRICS.
01:03:31 Indonesia was not covered there,
01:03:33 but Brazil was, in terms of digital adoption.
01:03:36 Brazil was somewhere between 55-60%.
01:03:40 And India, we were between 20-30%,
01:03:44 with even the 40%, the poorest population,
01:03:48 having a 10% gap over the average.
01:03:50 That is the average in India, if it is 32%.
01:03:53 So we are still, even after doing so much,
01:03:57 having 800 million mobile phones,
01:03:59 this and that, of which we are rightly proud,
01:04:02 there is still a long way to go.
01:04:04 And I am making this point simply because,
01:04:07 you know, in this country,
01:04:09 in many of these debates that are happening,
01:04:12 or discussions that are happening,
01:04:14 we are somehow, in certain cases I feel,
01:04:17 trying to say that,
01:04:19 because there is a global context also,
01:04:22 which Nidhi wanted me to cover.
01:04:24 In that context, India has already done
01:04:26 everything that needs to be done.
01:04:28 That is not the case.
01:04:30 Another data point that I saw in that,
01:04:32 which I thought I'd share,
01:04:34 was about a simple thing.
01:04:36 Adoption of ATM debit card,
01:04:38 and adoption of mobile internet.
01:04:41 You know, doing transactions through mobile and internet.
01:04:44 Again, you know, they have given some developed countries,
01:04:47 I am not going.
01:04:48 China was somewhere at 80-90%.
01:04:51 Here, adoption of Brazil,
01:04:53 say for example, adoption of debit card ATM,
01:04:57 payments made through debit credit cards is 57%,
01:05:00 mobile internet is 37%.
01:05:03 You know, and in India, it was,
01:05:05 India and Nigeria were around the same,
01:05:08 where it was 5% use,
01:05:10 5% of the population use debit card and credit card,
01:05:14 and 1% of the population only uses mobile or internet.
01:05:20 Yes, the number of transactions is now in billion,
01:05:23 and etc. It will grow.
01:05:25 But the point is that this,
01:05:27 I am not looking at something which is,
01:05:29 we need to be critical.
01:05:31 But it should be viewed as an opportunity.
01:05:34 One more example from the insurance industry itself.
01:05:36 You know, we used to track.
01:05:38 So, the largest player,
01:05:41 as of now I don't know whether someone has come from LIC,
01:05:44 but the fact is that we know that LIC was a different kind of company,
01:05:49 and post listing, it is in the process of converting itself,
01:05:53 becoming a profitable player,
01:05:56 and you know, profit in the way the insurance industry understands it,
01:06:00 value of new business margin, etc.,
01:06:02 which is very important.
01:06:04 But even today, and in terms of retail premium basis in the life sector,
01:06:09 I think they are below 50% now.
01:06:12 You know, they were at 65,
01:06:14 46, 47% of individual premiums come from,
01:06:19 you know, goes to LIC.
01:06:21 But if you see the number of policies,
01:06:24 they are still way, way ahead.
01:06:26 This is the only company which sells,
01:06:28 I don't know how much, 2 crores or 3 crores policies,
01:06:31 every year, even today.
01:06:33 Their growth may have got muted,
01:06:35 because of their size or whatever be the reason.
01:06:38 But, and if you look at the,
01:06:40 all the private players,
01:06:42 there are 23 private players which are there.
01:06:44 A similar thing is not there in,
01:06:46 I am a little too close possibly.
01:06:49 A similar thing has not happened in general insurance,
01:06:52 where I think the private players have actually managed to run the X,
01:06:57 you know, the government owned this thing.
01:07:00 But in terms of outreach in the life insurance sector,
01:07:03 LIC still is predominant.
01:07:06 Possibly the next largest could be SBI Life,
01:07:09 which is selling somewhere around
01:07:11 20 lakh policies, even after what
01:07:13 their CEO was saying about,
01:07:15 you know, 7 lakh being pure digital and being sold like that.
01:07:19 So again, a very, very sobering thought.
01:07:22 Because it's not about insurance coverage,
01:07:25 if you look at it, if you add the LIC policies which are in force,
01:07:29 say 30, 32 crore,
01:07:31 and if you were to multiply it by a factor of 4,
01:07:35 you know, you arrive at a figure of 1.2 billion, 1.3 billion,
01:07:40 which is roughly the size of India's population.
01:07:42 So one way to look at it is,
01:07:44 virtually we've covered all households,
01:07:46 somebody has insurance,
01:07:47 but then, again, in my previous panel,
01:07:50 they pointed out that it is only 10 to 12% of the actual need of the country.
01:07:56 And this issue somehow has not got resolved over the last 20 years.
01:08:02 So the regulator, as everyone was saying,
01:08:05 and we also are aware,
01:08:07 the regulator has been extremely proactive over the last one year,
01:08:11 and it's really creditable about the changes that have already been brought in,
01:08:17 and with what is lined up in the insurance amendment bill,
01:08:21 whenever it goes through, possibly in the monsoon session,
01:08:24 as per the latest information,
01:08:27 it's going to open up a lot of opportunities.
01:08:30 However, this particular aspect of coverage,
01:08:36 if we were to talk of the top metros,
01:08:39 or the tier two cities, tier three cities,
01:08:42 yes, you know, we have achieved a lot,
01:08:45 and we continue to achieve a lot.
01:08:47 But in terms of outreach, sale of insurance, how to sell it,
01:08:53 and then this question of savings protection,
01:08:55 I will add one more thing, you know.
01:08:57 So when you are going and connecting to someone in a small village,
01:09:03 and if you were to go and tell him that,
01:09:06 you know, if you were to buy a pure protection,
01:09:09 and even I asked that question,
01:09:11 when I joined service some 40 years ago,
01:09:14 some agent, friendly neighborhood agent of LIC came in,
01:09:18 only LIC was there at that time,
01:09:20 he told me that, you know, this is a policy,
01:09:23 you pay only this much premium, you will get that much return.
01:09:26 And for me it was a big amount, a few thousand rupees, but a big amount.
01:09:30 So then I asked him that, you know, this is after how many years?
01:09:34 He said 20 years, you have to pay for 20 years, you get it.
01:09:37 So I said, what happens after this?
01:09:40 He says, you get nothing.
01:09:42 I said, oh, but I thought that you got some bonus and return.
01:09:46 He says, no, no, that happens, I was absolutely a novice.
01:09:49 So he said, no, no, you get all that if you buy a savings product.
01:09:54 So next day he came forward with another savings product,
01:09:57 which I promptly also gave.
01:09:59 So there is an element, apart from, you know, this argument,
01:10:03 and I have seen not as drastic for Outlook money,
01:10:09 but this feeling that, you know,
01:10:11 what the life insurance industry should sell is only protection,
01:10:15 and then, you know, you do your savings from either equity or mutual fund.
01:10:20 You have to look at convenience.
01:10:22 Even today, with fair amount of financial literacy,
01:10:26 I would say, having worked in bank and insurance and all that,
01:10:31 I am, and I know many others like me, who don't want to do all that
01:10:37 and are very happy having a product,
01:10:40 apart from the argument that was put out by the panel,
01:10:43 are very happy having a product which combines the benefits of savings and protection.
01:10:49 Yes, the protection benefit could have been more if you had possibly segregated,
01:10:55 but the amount of inconvenience,
01:10:57 so how many protection policies I will buy,
01:11:00 how many times I will make investment in the stock market,
01:11:05 so that is one part of it.
01:11:08 That was one thing.
01:11:10 So what is the agent of, what have been the main agents of change?
01:11:14 Obviously it is technology, it is the way technology is used,
01:11:19 and in life insurance, much more than general insurance,
01:11:23 one other point that I would like to add is,
01:11:26 that how you are able to equip your internal workforce
01:11:31 as well as the distribution workforce in making life simple for them.
01:11:37 So first and foremost, you cannot make life simple for your client or the customer
01:11:43 if the resources or the equipment that you have with you is a very cumbersome process.
01:11:49 So nowadays I think most of the leading companies,
01:11:53 if he or she, the agent, were to go to a client,
01:11:57 he could go with an iPad, laptop, explain everything over there.
01:12:01 Because the customer, expecting the customer herself to be savvy,
01:12:08 and to understand and do digital etc., is not necessarily going to work.
01:12:14 But how effectively have we been able to convince our own agents
01:12:19 that they are having a better and more seamless experience?
01:12:24 And this is not true only of India,
01:12:26 with the limited experience that I have gained in the last 6-8 months,
01:12:31 seeing the global scenario.
01:12:33 This challenge of making life easier for the distributors and agents
01:12:39 is a universal global problem.
01:12:41 And there is a huge scope for improvement.
01:12:44 So again, when we talk of FinTech collaboration and partnership,
01:12:48 this is something which in a collaborative environment,
01:12:53 innovation has to happen on both sides.
01:12:55 The insurance company can think of something,
01:12:57 but the other thought has to come from the FinTechs as well.
01:13:02 Then what are the other developments in the global scenario
01:13:08 which could impact India?
01:13:11 Some thoughts around that.
01:13:13 So one is, 9 or 10 years back,
01:13:17 when I had come into the insurance industry,
01:13:19 at least for life insurance,
01:13:21 the biggest problem in the developed world,
01:13:23 which has somehow suddenly changed because of various economic developments,
01:13:28 was the fact that giving a return was a terrible task.
01:13:33 For us, that was never the problem,
01:13:36 because interest rates continued to remain high,
01:13:39 and if interest rates remained at a reasonable level,
01:13:43 you are able to maneuver around those interest rates
01:13:47 to give a reasonable return to your client,
01:13:50 whichever be your product category,
01:13:52 whether it is a ULIP, whether it is a traditional non-participating.
01:13:56 For them, it was a huge challenge.
01:13:58 Most of the countries in the West,
01:14:00 if they had a 0.05% increase in interest rate,
01:14:05 some countries like Japan even had 0%.
01:14:08 Some had negative interest rates.
01:14:10 You put money in a bank,
01:14:12 for a fairly long period after the crisis,
01:14:14 you put money in a bank,
01:14:16 you are not assured whether you will get your principal back.
01:14:18 He might keep something as charges.
01:14:21 That has reversed.
01:14:23 The reversal has not happened necessarily because of benign conditions,
01:14:28 but as you are aware, they are now fighting inflation
01:14:31 because of all these global developments,
01:14:33 like the war in Ukraine and the impact of COVID, etc.
01:14:37 However, the scenario has changed a little bit for them.
01:14:42 So the prospects of growth is muted.
01:14:47 The growth in population still continues to be very subdued
01:14:53 in the overall market, and as you know,
01:14:55 in insurance, that is very important.
01:14:57 The overall, what is the nature of the population.
01:15:01 But the other difference is, in the developed world,
01:15:04 the kind of sophistication in the products that you can make,
01:15:08 the kind of products you can sell.
01:15:11 We talked about wealth in the previous panel discussion.
01:15:15 Health and wealth remains at the core of insurance.
01:15:19 COVID opened our eyes to the need to some extent
01:15:27 to pull and push that continual debate that we have
01:15:31 whether life insurance is a push product or a pull product.
01:15:34 To some extent, it has become a push product.
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