With most urban women following some form of financial discipline, banks and insurance companies are looking to target them with specialized offerings.
HDFC Life which launched its Smart Plan life insurance plan targeted at women has seen a gross premium collection of over Rs 20 crore from this offering. “Nearly 23% of our customers are women and their savings and retirement are different when compared to men because of lifestyle changes like marriage , child and sometimes even death of spouse,” Sanjay Tiwari, vice-president , product , HDFC Life said.
ING Vysya Bank is offering a two-in-one account for mothers and children. “Under this, mothers can set up a minor account linked to their salary account,” Sonalee Panda, group head, private banking, wealth management, ING Vysya Bank said.
Nearly 26% of the bank’s customers are women and they account for 18% of the deposits of the bank. The bank is now developing a solution for senior citizen women. “This would help reduce the associated paper work,” added Panda .
Similarly, Kotak Mahindra Bank which launched a Silk programme for women provides rewards like up to 6% on savings accounts and monthly cash backs up to 5% on debit card spends. In fact, in a survey by HDFC Life ValueNotes Life Freedom Index last year indicated that almost all urban women followed some level of financial discipline, with 17% of them being extremely disciplined adhering to their financial plan and management . And while chalking out their financial plans, the highest priority went towards child’s education (56%), followed by health expenses (33%).
Investment advisers also say that there has been some traction towards debt and equity mutual funds and gold ETFs (exchange traded funds). “While the awareness of gold ETFs is high in the top 8 to 10 cities, the impact is now spreading to other regions as well with the launch of products such as gold FOF (fund of funds),” Lakshmi Iyer, head, fixed income and products, Kotak Mutual Fund said.
