3rd
March’20, Delhi :One97 Communications Ltd (OCL),
which owns India's largest payments and financial services
platform Paytm, today announced that its wholly-owned
subsidiary Paytm Insurance Broking Private Limited (PIBPL) has secured
its license to sell life and non-life insurance from the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). This license will
allow the company to roll out insurance products to millions of consumers
across India.
Through
its 100% subsidiary PIBPL, the company will now offer insurance products across
four categories including two-wheeler, four-wheeler, health and
life. PIBPL has already tied up with 20 of the leading insurance
firms in India and would be integrating with 30 more companies over the next
few weeks.
OCL's
journey in the insurance space started over three years back when it
entered the corporate agency business. The company started with offering
appropriate attachment products on Paytm transactions to evolve into a
marketplace for all insurance products. It recently surrendered its
'corporate agency’ license for obtaining the brokerage license.
PIBPL
over the last several months has been working extensively to understand the
needs of customers for insurance products and will be offering innovative
insurance products in a seamless and easy to understand the online journey. The
company would also provide policy management and claim services for customers.
Other
than online initiatives, the company would be leveraging on its 16
million-strong merchant partner base to sell its insurance products all over
the country. Building a large network of PoSP, PIBPL plans to increase the
reach of insurance products to a large customer base. The firm would be
empowering millions of merchants with alternate income sources which they would
earn through commissions on selling insurance products. The company is in the
process of shortlisting merchant partners who would be trained to become Point
of Sales Persons (PoSPs). The company plans to rope in 2 lakh such PoSPs this
year.
Amit
Nayyar, President- Paytm said, "Our entry into
Insurance Broking is in line with our commitment to broaden our footprint into
financial services and offering numerous and customized choices to millions of
our customers. This would enable us to offer a wider suite of product offerings
from a large set of insurance partners. The potential of the insurance business
is huge as the market is still under-penetrated in India. Paytm Insurance is
going to give millions of our users the option of buying bite-sized insurance
products at a competitive price. As a company, we fully rely and trust on our
merchant partners, selling insurance products and augmenting their income
options while driving penetration."