Public sector bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB) is likely to commence its life insurance business soon. The bank plans to start this new venture during the first quarter of the next fiscal in association with the UK-based Legal & General Group and Andhra Bank.

Chairman and Managing of BoB, M D Mallya said, "We are in the process of filing R1 (initial regulatory clearance) application. Thereafter, other regulatory approvals generally take six-to-seven months."

This new business will consist of 44% stake from BoB where as Andhra Bank and foreign partner are expected to hold 30% and 26% shares respectively. The life insurance business by the three parties started in November 2007, reported the Chairman.

Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank together have a customer base of over 4 crore customers and they plan to capture this market for their new venture. Even the British insurance major considers India to be the potential growth market and therefore it has decided to recruit over 5,000 professionals in India in the coming 5 years.

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The life insurance business of the three parties is expected to give a tough competition to existing players in the industry. Currently, life insurance sector comprise of 21 players including the majors like State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

Recently Canara Bank has also started its life insurance business.