The HDFC Bank group has introduced life insurance and asset management services at India's international financial centre, GIFT City, in Ahmedabad. The new unit will cater to non-resident Indians and the Indian diaspora globally, as well as institutional and non-institutional investors, said Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC Life and HDFC AMC.
HDFC International Life & RE has been set up as a branch of HDFC Life Insurance Co., while HDFC AMC International is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HDFC Asset Management Co.
The life insurance branch at the international financial centre will offer dollar-denominated life and health insurance products. This is to cater to the Indian diaspora abroad, as HDFC Life was so far only able to offer products denominated in rupees, which these individuals were not too interested in, Parekh said at the launch.
“For the insurance and AMC business in particular, presence in the GIFT City is particularly beneficial, since penetration levels of both these sectors, compared to global levels, are tiny. Life insurance penetration in India is only 3.2% of GDP, compared to a global average of 7%. So, we have a long, long way to go. Earlier, HDFC Life could only offer insurance products in rupees, which NRIs were not interested in taking,” Parekh said.
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