Thread by @BiIndia

#ComingUp: Big newsbreak on @BiIndia, stay tuned.

@SanchDash

@SanchDash #EXCLUSIVE: India's largest insurer #LIC is inviting bids from payment aggregators⁠

businessinsider.in/finance/news/i…

By @SanchDash

@SanchDash The Life Insurance Corporation of India (#LIC), the country’s largest and over half a century old insurer, has a golden egg for India’s payment gateway operators.

@SanchDash #LIC is currently inviting bids from payment aggregator companies to enable digital payment of premiums for its over 250 million customers – an opportunity for the likes of #Razorpay, #Paytm, #PayU to pounce upon and gain LIC’s millions of users overnight.

@SanchDash Business Insider has learnt that, on February 5, 2021, #LIC floated the “request for proposal (RFP)” for a contract which will be valid for five years.

@SanchDash The RFP, seen by Business Insider, states that “LIC wishes to avail a comprehensive, fully automated end to end solution for all types of collections of LIC, not limited to just premiums, by integrating LIC’s website with an integrated Internet Payment Aggregator”.

#LIC

@SanchDash #LIC had earlier floated a similar bid in 2017, but the bid had not seen the light of the day.

@SanchDash But now, there are big things lined up for #LIC. The 65-year old insurer is headed for a market debut too this year, as announced by Finance Minister #NirmalaSitharaman in her Budget 2020 speech.

@SanchDash One of India’s payment gateway operators #Razorpay has confirmed to Business Insider that it has been invited to bid for #LIC, and will be submitting its proposal in March. However, the billion dollar startup did not share any further details.

@SanchDash For technology enthusiasts like @rajeevsuri, the managing director at Orios Venture Partners (@OriosVP), the bigger benefit lies for #LIC in this partnership. Suri takes a leaf out of China’s playbook to cite the example of #Alipay and its success.

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP “Today, insurance is mainly used as a tax saving alternative. But with data from these startups will help #LIC. That is the data driven magic that happened in China that built the most powerful IPO the world has ever seen. And it could happen with LIC too,” said @rajeevsuri.

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP According to a @GoldmanSachs report, the online individual insurance market (life and health) could be worth $1.25bn by FY25, more than tripling from $365mn in FY20. And without a doubt, #LIC holds the mammoth share of the market.

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP @GoldmanSachs For India’s payment startups, this will be a big chance to gain more users and transactions. In 2019-20 alone, #LIC processed premiums worth ₹3.79 lakh crore ($51.7 billion).

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP @GoldmanSachs “#LIC is the grandmaster of insurance in India. For any startup partnering with LIC would mean an easier sell of insurance to consumers, the trust deficit associated with financial products would go away when there is an association with LIC,” @rajeevsuri told Business Insider.

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP @GoldmanSachs Partnering with India’s biggest life insurer, which is also headed for the public markets in what is called as the ‘biggest IPO of the decade’, won’t be an easy task.

#LIC

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP @GoldmanSachs Interestingly, there are many more players entering the payments industry with full force.

#LIC

@SanchDash @rajeevsuri @OriosVP @GoldmanSachs From Mukesh Ambani’s #Reliance to the Jeff Bezos-led A#mazon have partnered with banks and other organisations, to apply for a new umbrella entity (#NUE) licence, which will have powers similar to the apex body National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

#LIC