At Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co, their all women branches are proving such a hit that from five branches in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune the insurer intends to scale up to 50 branches by 2018.
For G S Deepa, who has sold Rs 15 lakh worth insurance policies till date, it was the “all women” tag that first attracted her to it. “I wanted to be around for my 4-year-old daughter and I didn’t know any place that would support spending so much time at home, says Deepa, who sells insurance to SMEs, hotels and colleges.
And there are many other women like her, who are finding solid opportunity as loan sourcing agents, field officers, business correspondents at banks such as State Bank of India and Suryoday Small Finance Bank promoting.
For instance at State Bank of India’s Indira Nagar branch in Bengaluru, women are finding they are better placed to explain whether one would need a personal loan, education loan or SME loan for their businesses. “Conversational banking is our forte. The art of small talk, making one feel at ease is something our women bankers excel in. The branch has really helped a lot of women entrepreneurs start their own ventures. Our staff not only tell them about our loans, but also educated them on credit score, the need for a good financial history to facilitate further loans and upscaling,” said an SBI manager.
The branch also has been successful in its sale of third-party products such as insurance, mutual funds.
For Krushangi Shah, a single mother from Ahmedabad, her only source of income was jewelry sales. But the irregularity of sales in that business made it difficult for her to pay her son’s monthly school fees. “After she joined our all women’s team, she learnt a lot and is a pro at selling travel insurance policies. She leverages on the network she has built amongst NRIs in Ahmedabad and cross sells travel insurance along with jewellery,” said Anamika Roy Rashtrawar, Senior President, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
Suryoday Microfinance, which has an all women branch in Wadala, says that opening more such branches in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra is part of their key strategy. “There are many skeptics, who say that the loans we give are not 100% entrepreneurial by nature. This maybe true – but because of the network, these loans do result in positive productive activity. For instance, many mothers take a loan to buy bikes for their sons, who want to work with Flipkart, Swiggy, Freshmenu and other such players. Some women take loans to buy a smart phone or improve on their existing business; if they had a small dosai shop on cartwheel they want to upgrade to a brick-and-mortar establishment. I think the very fact that the loans are aspirational in nature is a testament to the entreprenurial drive of women and success of our model,” said R Baskar Babu, CEO, Suryoday Small Finance Bank.
Source: Times of India