The HDFC Bank Group on Thursday announced the launch of its mutual fund and life insurance services from Gujarat’s GIFT City. While HDFC International Life and Re has been set up by HDFC Life, HDFC AMC International (IFSC) has been set up by HDFC Asset Management Company.
According to a joint statement issued by HDFC AMC and HDFC Life, the newly-launched HDFC International Life and Re branch will offer dollar-denominated life and health insurance products to non-resident Indians (NRIs) under the brand name HDFC Life International.
The products offered by HDFC Life International includes “US Dollar Global Education Plan”, which is designed to help parents build a dollar-denominated corpus to meet future expenses for their child’s overseas education. Meanwhile, HDFC AMC International proposed to launch six funds, which would feed into different HDFC MF schemes covering strategies on equity and hybrids.
The underlying domestic schemes for these strategies have an aggregate asset under management (AUM) in excess of $20 billion as of July-end, the statement said, adding that the initial focus would also be to attract global institutional investors looking at Indian investments. Further, HDFC AMC International (IFSC) will also provide portfolio management services to eligible global institutional investors.
Speaking at the launch, HDFC Life and HDFC AMC chairman Deepak Parekh said life insurance and mutual fund products have a good runway for growth in an underpenetrated country like India.
“In India, life insurance penetration is just 3.2% of GDP, compared to the global average of 7%. Similarly, the penetration of mutual funds in India is 17% of GDP, while the world average is 80% of GDP. So we do have a long way to go,” Parekh said.
Parekh said that international finance centres have contributed to increased employment and investments globally, and called for a principle-based inter-regulatory framework for the same.
“Getting the right financial incentives, enabling the ease of doing business and facilitating the opening up of the financial markets is what IFSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority) has successfully done,” Parekh said.