Axis Bank has ended an exclusive bancassurance partnership with Max Life Insurance by entering into a similar arrangement with LIC. Max Life’s partnership with Axis Bank accounted for 55% of the insurer’s revenue in the year ended 31 March. With Axis Bank agreeing to distribute LIC’s products, investors fear Max Life may potentially lose a part of its business from the bank.
Max Life has also tied up with other lenders, including Yes Bank Ltd.
“We are seeing good growth number from them (Axis and Yes Bank) as well. Apart from that, we have Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which again is a partner to us. We have a long list of other smaller urban cooperative banks that we work with and also quite actively engaged in the conversation with the public sector banks,” Rajesh Sud, executive vice-chairman and managing director of Max Life Insurance, said.
Sud said Axis’s partnership with LIC won’t affect the business that Max Life generates from the bank.
“It expands the market for them (LIC and Axis) but doesn’t take away anything from us,” Sud said. “Our growth rate in Axis is as steady as before even after LIC coming in; in fact it has accelerated.”
Cumulative premium collected from the partnership between Max Life and Axis was Rs.24,000 crore, covering about 1.5 million people.
