IDBI in tie up with Fortis

After considering a few options, IDBI bank has made up its mind and has finalized with Belgo-Dutch bancassurance group Fortis as its partner for its foray into the life insurance business. The parties will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This deal will mark the third tie up between an Indian bank and a multinational bancassurance partner. The other two being, the JV between SBI and Cardif S.A., a life insurance company in France, which took the form of SBI Life. The second one is ING Group that tied up with Vysya Bank to result into ING Vysya. Fortis, is the result of a cross border merger between Belgian and a Dutch institution. For its venture, IDBI had short listed Fortis from the other three foreign insurers, Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company of Japan, Italian insurance group Generali and French insurer Axa. Earlier it was Bank of Baroda (BoB), which was to form a joint venture with IDBI. But the deal didn’t materialise as both the public sector bank entities wanted a stake of 49% in the JV. This is not possible, as the JV would include a foreign partner that would have a stake of 26%. So now BoB has started a fresh look and is considering a South India-based bank for its insurance JV.