Paytm arm gets brokerage license for insurance products

Paytm subsidiary Paytm Insurance Broking has received a brokerage licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Authority of India (IRDAI).

With the license, the company can now roll out insurance products across categories including automotive, health and life, the company said in a statement.

“Our entry into insurance broking is in line with our commitment to broaden our footprint into financial services… The potential of the insurance business is huge as the market is still under-penetrated in India,” Amit Nayyar, president of Paytm, said in a statement.

Paytm Insurance Broking has tied up with 20 Indian insurance firms and would be integrating with 30 more companies over the next few weeks, the statement said, adding that the company would also provide policy management and claim services for customers.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Noida-based One97 Communications recently surrendered its corporate agency license to get the brokerage one. 

Paytm said it will leverage the 16 million merchants on its platform to sell insurance products across India. These merchants will function as point-of-sale persons (POSPs). According to Paytm, it is shortlisting the first set of merchants  who will act as POSP agents, and over the year, hire two lakh such merchants to sell insurance products.

The development comes within a year of Paytm’s talks of acquiring online insurance aggregator Coverfox. 

Paytm will now compete with companies such as PolicyBazaar, Coverfox and Turtlemint.

Last month, PhonePe became the latest entrant into the insurance segment after partnering with Bajaj Allianz to sell travel insurance policies.