SBI Life set to enter Bahrain

SBI Life is set to enter Bahrain in next financial year and is awaiting regulatory permission to open a branch there, a top company official has said.

“We are all set to expand and enter Bahrain next financial year and we have already received the approvals from IRDAI for the same,” SBI Life managing director and chief executive Arijit Basu told PTI.

“We are now waiting for the approval from Central Bank of Bahrain (which also regulates that country’s insurance industry) to kick off our operations,” he said.

SBI Life is a joint venture between State Bank of India and the French financial services powerhouse BNP Paribas Cardiff.

The SBI had recently said that it would dilute 10 percent of its stake in the life arm through a public offer, stated a report in the Economic Times.

Basu said though the initial focus will be on NRIs or people of Indian origin living in Bahrain, they may also serve the locals in the future.

Currently, the state-run LIC is the only domestic insurer, which is present in the Gulf.

The Bahrain-headquartered LIC International is present in five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

LIC International managing director Rajesh Khandwal had earlier earlier said the overall insurance penetration in GCC is likely to improve from 1.1 per cent in 2012 to 2.2 percent in 2017.