Hero Insurance Broking gets nod for risk, reinsurance
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Synopsis
Hero Insurance Broking India has acquired a composite broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) which will allow the firm to offer reinsurance broking and risk management consultancy services to corporate clients, Hero Enterprise
By Ashwin Manikandan, ET Bureau
Last Updated:
Mumbai: Hero Insurance Broking India has acquired a composite broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) which will allow the firm to offer reinsurance broking and risk management consultancy services to corporate clients, Hero Enterprise chairman Sunil Munjal told ET.
“From an agency, we converted in 2018 to a brokerage where we decided that instead of representing insurance companies, we’ll represent customers,” Munjal said over a video call. “This year we took one more step — we have taken a composite licence and have taken a call to beef up our team. We looked around for the best talent available from global insurance firms, as well as from the technology sector.”
Munjal said while insurance in India continues to grow, insurers and intermediaries are barely skimming the surface and penetration continues to be low. This has prompted the firm to take an approach that mixes physical with digital to enhance coverage scope, he said.
According to Munjal, the firm currently has 2,700 locations across the country through field agents selling policies through a point of salesperson (POSP) model. “Very few people know that we sell over 10 million policies a year, which makes us bigger than many of the insurance companies out there,” said Munjal, adding that the firm prefer to remain a broker as it’s a margin accretive business, more so even than manufacturing and underwriting own policies, he said.
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The firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hero Corporate Service, has been in the Indian insurance market since 2005, first as an agency and then as a direct broker since 2018. With its new composite licence, which IRDAI approved in June, the firm is now also planning to enter specialised corporate lines of insurance such as manufacturing and employee benefits.“From an agency, we converted in 2018 to a brokerage where we decided that instead of representing insurance companies, we’ll represent customers,” Munjal said over a video call. “This year we took one more step — we have taken a composite licence and have taken a call to beef up our team. We looked around for the best talent available from global insurance firms, as well as from the technology sector.”
Munjal said while insurance in India continues to grow, insurers and intermediaries are barely skimming the surface and penetration continues to be low. This has prompted the firm to take an approach that mixes physical with digital to enhance coverage scope, he said.
According to Munjal, the firm currently has 2,700 locations across the country through field agents selling policies through a point of salesperson (POSP) model. “Very few people know that we sell over 10 million policies a year, which makes us bigger than many of the insurance companies out there,” said Munjal, adding that the firm prefer to remain a broker as it’s a margin accretive business, more so even than manufacturing and underwriting own policies, he said.
