Asian News - LIC of India to start operations in Bangladesh
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Jul 2015
Bangladesh has granted permission to India’s largest life insurer, the public-sector Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) to operate in the country, making it the second foreign insurance company to operate in Bangladesh after the US-based MetLife.
LICI will be allowed to operate as a joint venture entity to be called LIC Bangladesh Ltd with a paid up capital of BDT1 billion (US$12.8 million) under a decision taken by the regulator. LIC will hold half of the amount while the rest would be owed by its Bangladeshi partners, raising the amount from the capital market and local entrepreneurs.
The approval came nearly two years after the Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority Bangladesh (IDRA) rejected a LIC proposal seeking to launch its business in Bangladesh with a paid up capital of BDT300 million. Apart from two state-run insurance companies, Bangladesh currently has 60 insurance companies in the private sector, 43 of them general and 17 life.