Fast forward

Calcutta, Sept. 1: LIC’s ambitious digitisation programme will ensure that from November, policyholders can avail themselves of the insurer’s facilities — such as policy redemption, loans against policies and premium renewals — from any branch in the country and not only from the one where the policy has been issued.

“The process of digitisation of policyholders’ documents is expected to be completed next month and after that we’ll be able to service customers from any location,” said S.K. Roy, zonal manager (east), the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Hewlett-Packard is implementing the Rs 600-crore project, and 96 per cent of the work have been completed. “Given the pace of work, the remaining 4 per cent will be completed hopefully before the deadline of October 31,” Roy said.

The digitisation project, which is similar to core banking solutions, will also help the LIC reduce frauds, loss or damage of documents and dispose claims faster.

The enterprise data management project, involving 28 crore policies, will allow policyholders to carry their policies to any city they get transferred to within the country.

“It will be similar to anywhere banking facility,” a senior LIC official said.

“However, as of now, we do not plan to offer policies on dematerialised form though this idea has been mooted by the insurance regulator,” Roy said.

Celebrating the LIC Day (LIC was established on September 1, 1956), Roy said, “The eastern zone has achieved a premium income of Rs 1,115 crore from new policy sales till August 15 against a target of Rs 6,700 crore for this fiscal. We are hopeful of achieving the target as the peak season for policy sales begins in the second half and there are already signs of turnaround in sales.”

After September last year, life insurers in the country have been reporting declining policy sales every month. This is because the sales of unit-linked plans, from which insurers were making money hand over fist, have gone down steeply for every insurer under the new regulations implemented from September last year.