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Bangladesh allows LIC to do biz in insurance market

 Bangladesh has granted permission to the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to run its business, making it the second foreign insurance company to operate in the country, officials said on Wednesday.

“We have given LIC a letter of consent upon certain conditions. They will be able to start operations once they are fulfilled,” Bangladesh Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) chief M <g data-gr-id="27">Shefaq</g> Ahmed was quoted as saying by the BDNews24.

He said the Indian state-owned insurance giant was allowed to start operations as a joint venture entity to be called LIC Bangladesh Ltd with a paid up capital of Taka 1 billion ($1=Tk 80) under a decision taken by the regulator three days ago. LIC will hold half of the amount while the rest would be <g data-gr-id="23">owed</g> by its Bangladeshi partners raising the amount from the capital market and local entrepreneurs.

The approval came nearly two years after the IDRA rejected <g data-gr-id="35">a LIC</g> proposal seeking to launch its business in Bangladesh with a paid up capital of Tk 300 million. LIC has been in the insurance business for six decades and is worth over 15,000 billion Indian rupees and it became the second foreign insurance agency after the US-based MetLife-ALICO, which <g data-gr-id="25">too</g> operate in Bangladesh as a branch office instead of being a joint venture registered company.

Apart from the two state-run insurance companies, Bangladesh currently has 60 insurance companies in <g data-gr-id="33">private</g> sector, 43 of them being general and 17 life. According to the <g data-gr-id="32">report</g> the IDRA plans to <g data-gr-id="26">handover</g> its consent letter to LIC Chairman SK Roy during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka on?June 6 and 7.

Beyond India, the LIC currently operates in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Singapore. 

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