IDBI Fortis Life Insurance is a life insurer added recently to the insurance industry. The company plans to expand its presence in the insurance market by clubbing the products of its bank promoters IDBI Bank and Federal Bank to the insurance basket.

The company has gained profits in the first year of its operations owing to its strategy of competitive and low pricing of products. It plans to expand in both products and geographies in the upcoming few months.

It has its presence in 36 cities of the country and plans to land in 17 more in three months to come.

Nageswara Rao, MD & CEO, IDBI Fortis Life has said, "Over the next one year, it is very important to be in all customer segments as our product basket is not complete. We don't have a standalone health or child plan. Also, we need to increase the penetration level. Both our promoter banks have set up 300-400 branches this year and hence the customer base has gone up."

As the company earns two thirds of its profits from bancassurance, it is planning a strategy that cashes out on this competency itself. It plans to leverage on the strong presence of IDBI and Federal Bank to some of its products.

"We may bundle some insurance solutions, for example, with home loans, auto or education loans. We have already started tapping the agricultural and rural branches in a big way. The SME segment is also significant," Rao said.

"Customers are increasingly looking at banks as a one-stop solution for financial planning products. The total number of branches between both the banks is around 1500. Federal Bank has a 30% market share in Kerala and most customers who take life insurance products are customers of Federal Bank. The challenge is to tap as many customers as possible", he added.

The company has 7, 500 financial advisors under its umbrella and is strategizing on widening the umbrella by doubling the count of advisors.