Effect of life insurance...

Reacting to media reports about LIC being adversely affected by the entry of MNCs, an LIC agent said, “The entry of the private players will not make any difference to LIC. The private players will concentrate more on the higher income groups while LIC will maintain its goodwill among the masses.” A policyholder added, “LIC has already been offering all the frills that the private players are now banking on and the only differentiating factor could be the quality of service.” Apprehensions of the MNCs ‘taking over’ the Indian insurance sector were gradually put to rest as various reports revealed that LIC would easily continue to be the market leader. A Monitor Group study predicted that LIC would continue to have 75-80% market share even in 2010. A report by consultants KPMG revealed that the threat of new players taking over the market had been overplayed and that the nationalized players would continue to hold strong market share positions. At the same time, there would be enough business for new entrants.

A look at the developments in other countries which opened up their insurance sector to global players reveals that new companies seldom displace the existing players. In China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the foreign companies accounted for only 10% of the market share. In South Korea, the opening up of the sector saw the six biggest domestic players, who initially controlled the entire market, increase their business substantially. The foreign companies were not able to capture more than 0.4% of the domestic market.

What LIC does to retain its competitive strength will determine its success in the future. For now, LIC seems to be taking a Business Wire report very seriously. This report aptly summed up the whole issue: “Over the years, LIC has made money the easy way. Hereafter, it must sweat for it.”