State owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will enable its customers to buy policies online directly through its newly launched repository service called ‘e-services’ soon, said S.K. Roy, Chairman, LIC India while addressing a press conference at the launch of its e-services platform held in Mumbai today.
Roy said that LIC will launch online plans of all policies and leverage its newly launched repository services to promote these plans. This facility will get operational within two months, he said. Direct policies would be cheaper than regular policies because of the absence of intermediation cost.
When asked whether it be a threat for existing agents, Roy said that currently, LIC India is distributing such policies online through its website. So far, LIC was not offering online plans in each category. Also, online business has yet to see a traction. Of 1.50 crore policies sold last year, only 6000 have been bought online, Roy said.
LIC India’s e-services provides repository services such as policy status, bonus status, loan status, claim status, claim history under basic plan. Under premier plan, customers can access services like premium due calendar, online premium payment, claim history etc. The objective of creating this facility is to provide policyholders a facility to buy and keep their insurance policies in electronic form. They can convert their new as well as existing policies into electronic form through this service.
Last year IRDAI had come out with a circular in which it asked insurers to digitalize physical policies at the earliest. Under this exercise, LIC India has digitalized close to 4 crore policies.