Hero Broking to diversify offerings; strengthen its footprint in the Distribution Space
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has issued a three-year license in the “ Direct – Life & General” category to Hero Insurance Broking India Private Limited to conduct all types of General Insurance Business, including Health and Life Insurance.
The robust insurance business of Sunil Kant Munjal-promoted Hero Enterprise, which is currently carried out by Hero Corporate Service Pvt Ltd, will migrate to Hero Broking.
“Our insurance vertical has grown new wings. This license gives us the capability to expand our physical footprint and grow our branch network on a sustainable basis. We will also be able to expand beyond automobile insurance and create fresh momentum in the new decade,’’ Shefali Munjal, Executive Director, Hero Corporate Service said.
To grow the broking platform, Hero is strengthening its client servicing teams across India. The company’s IT backbone is also being strengthened to meet the customised needs of large corporates, SMEs, MME’s & other niche customer segments.
The broking license will bring new synergies to Hero’s strong insurance distribution ecosystem and help it offer a wider choice of insurance partners and products to its base of customers. It will also the company’s distribution touch points to become “One Stop Shops” for all basic insurance needs of the customer.
“Our relationship with channel partners are based on the principle of win-win, and we’ve always sought to create a distinct and sustainable revenue model for them, while being compliant at the same time ’’ Ms Munjal said.
She said the broking license would also help Hero offer certain super-specialised insurance products that are making their way into India. “Hero has regularly collaborated with its insurance partners to develop customised products over the years, and this practice will be further strengthened, given the wider portfolio on offer,’’ Ms Munjal added.
Hero is also keen to partner and support the government in its efforts to increase insurance penetration, especially through digitisation.
“We pioneered instant online paperless policy issuance in India; continuous investments both at the front and back ends have meant that even as volumes have expanded, policy processing time has come down from 20 minutes to under three minutes. We are now adding new layers to our technology platform in our efforts to become torchbearers of Digital India,’’ Ms Munjal said.
Hero currently offers its general insurance services to the manufacturing, hospitality, education, health, travel and aviation sectors, in addition to the entire automobile segment. It recently entered the life insurance segment, and is now aggressively looking at expanding its footprint in the health insurance space.
“Our distribution strengths lie across Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities and the trust that customers already have for the Hero brand, place us at the frontline in the battle to increase health penetration in India,’’ Ms Munjal added.
Since its inception 13 years ago, Hero has partnered with the best and most progressive insurance companies in the industry and has crossed several milestones. It will further augment this initiative through the broking platform with a need based approach.
The company (under the erstwhile Corporate Agency Platform) has clocked a CAGR of 26.4 per cent in the 2004-2017 period, with policies issued jumping from 6 lakh to 10 million policies annually, and the number of renewals has gone up from 20,000 a year to 4 million a year. The premium handling capacity has increased from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 2000 crores, while average monthly policy issuance has gone up from 5000 to 8 lakh.
About Hero Insurance Broking India Pvt. Ltd.:
Hero Insurance Broking India Pvt. Ltd. (HIBIPL) is part of Hero Enterprise and is India’s leading Insurance Broker with a unique vision to sell insurance products. Hero Insurance Broking is having all systems and processes in place as per regulatory requirement, using state-of-the art technology. The Insurance Broking Portal is a web-based interface that allows the distributor to sell insurance products to its customers. Its unique feature is the choice it gives to the distributor, both in terms of products, service provider and customer retention strategies. It manages over 4000 distributors active in over 2500 locations in India.
