CHENNAI: Indian Bank’s plan to enter the life insurance and asset management businesses is moving toward a board decision. Managing director and chief executive Binod Kumar told PTI in an interview, describing the process as “very much on track.”
Kumar said the bank is working to secure internal board clearance for the subsidiaries or joint ventures through which it plans to enter both segments. Once that approval comes through, the regulatory and administrative work needed to actually stand up the ventures will begin.
The bigger factor in how quickly the business gets off the ground, Kumar indicated, is not the paperwork but the partner. He estimated the search for a partner could take about a year, calling it the single most important part of the exercise, since a strong partner speeds up wealth creation for the bank. He also described subsidiaries and joint ventures more broadly as a route to both new revenue and stronger branding for Indian Bank.
This would not be Indian Bank’s first exposure to insurance, though it would be its first as a standalone promoter. The bank already holds a 28.52 per cent stake in Universal Sompo General Insurance Company, which it acquired when Allahabad Bank was merged into it in 2020. Universal Sompo, incorporated in 2007, is otherwise held by Indian Overseas Bank (18.06 per cent), Karnataka Bank (6 per cent), Dabur Investment Corp (12.81 per cent) and Japan’s Sompo Japan Insurance Inc, which owns the largest share at 34.61 per cent.
Indian Bank’s Overseas Expansion Plans
In the same interview, Kumar laid out Indian Bank’s overseas expansion plans, centred on a proposed representative office in Dubai. He pointed to the size of the Indian community in the UAE, noting that Indians make up around a third of the workforce there. He also cited the bank’s existing momentum in the region through its GIFT City IFSC Banking Unit, which he said has already brought in syndicated-loan business. The Dubai office has cleared Indian Bank’s board and is now awaiting other regulatory approvals.
The bank currently runs a full-service overseas branch in Singapore, branches in Colombo and Jaffna in Sri Lanka, and the IFSC unit out of GIFT City, Gandhinagar. Kumar said Indian Bank is also studying whether to set up a presence in Malaysia and Indonesia, though those plans are at an earlier, exploratory stage compared with Dubai.
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