SBI Life mulls to expand biz to Rs 6,000cr

In its bid to increase the size of business to more than Rs 6,000 crore in the current year over last year, SBI Life Insurance, the life insurance arm of State Bank of India, has initiated several steps. These comprise, among others, creating more zones, delegating more authority to each zonal head and broad-basing the incentive mechanism for distribution of products through the banking channel. The mirco-insurance products, especially for self-help groups too, will be prepared within the next few month.The number of zones had been increased to eight from four. The east zone now included West Bengal, North-East and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Earlier, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand were under the east zone. Orissa has now been tagged to Andhra Pradesh while Bihar and Jharkhand to Uttar Pradesh. Since the banking channel accounted for 55 per cent of SBI Life''s total business, it was imperative that those active in the channel were suitably rewarded to make them responsive to the current market dynamics. SBI Life has noted that predominant growth areas were not necessarily the metros.