“BRANCH OPERATIONS AND NEW BUSINESS PROCESSING

AT METLIFE INSURANCE CO. PVT. LTD.”

(An empirical study)

PROJECT REPORT

Submitted To

MetLife Insurance Co. Pvt. Ltd

AND

MBS Business School Jammu

For partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award

Of degree of

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

By

ABEENA RAJAB KHAN

Under the supervision of

Mr. Salahuddin Kar

(Regional Director J&K)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives me immense gratification to place my profound gratitude and sincere appreciation to

each and every employee of MetLife India Insurance, Barzulla, Srinagar Kashmir who have
helped me in this endeavor. First of all, I thank Almighty GOD for his blessings on me
throughout the entire project.
I place my special thanks to Mr. Salahuddin Kar (Regional Director J&K) for
providing wonderful opportunity to do the project in an esteemed organization.

I am highly thankful to Mr.Yasir, Mr.Riyaz Dar (Branch Service Manager), and Ms.
Misbah Shoukat (Executive) for providing proper direction, sparing the valuable time and
rendering all possible guidance when ever needed.

I extend my sincere thanks to Mr.Shabir (Branch Manager) for his support and
encouragement that he has given me in preparing the project. I also take this opportunity to thank
my parents who have been with me and always offered emotional strength and moral
support. Any omission in this brief acknowledgement may not be taken as lack of gratitude.
I also thank my respective institute for having given me this opportunity to put into practice the
theoretical knowledge that I imparted from them.

ABEENA RAJAB
 TABLE OF CONTENT

S.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. Executive summary
2. Introduction to Insurance Industry
3. Profile of MetLife Insurance
4. Introduction to study.
• Branch Operations
• New Business Processing At MetLife
5. Research methodology
6. Data interpretation and analysis
7. Conclusions and Suggestions
8. Limitations
9. SWOT analysis
10. BCG Matrix of MetLife
11. Bibliography
12. Annexure
 Executive Summary
The project is on “Branch Operations &New Business Processing at MetLife”. The
contents of this report have been carefully planned. It covers an extensive survey and depicts all
graphs, facts and figures of the Company. The main objective of this project is to have an in-
depth understanding about the branch operations and the activities that are carried out for New
Business processing. The focus of my work is on knowing and understanding various operations
regarding New Business that includes processing applications, issuance of policy and dispatch of
Policy Docket to end customer. It also covers some of the major strategies adopted by MetLife
inc. Company.

The branch operations team plays a very critical role in New Business activities and
performs most important functions that involves file management process and archival,
managing the medical service providers, dispatching of medicals to HNI customers, policy
dispatch and printing etc. They ensure that all important documents reach the HO for
underwriting in a correct and synchronized manner.

This project will be useful for the Company in preparing various strategies to increase the
Business, attract more and more customers and also to stay ahead from its competitors. In order
to get the appropriate data about the processing of new business, staff was taken into
consideration to express their valuable views and keen observations were made. Then a
structured questionnaire containing 12-14 questions was designed to check the rejection reasons
and study the branch operations. And on the basis of such findings, interpretation and analysis of
data we were able to find out a better conclusion and provide the Company with some valuable
suggestions. By analyzing the New Business Processing, we can see if we are doing better or
worse compared to other companies that are facing the same challenges and opportunities that
we are facing.
Introduction to Insurance Industry

What is insurance?

The business of insurance is related to the protection of the economic values of assets. Insurance,
in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hide against the risk of a
contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of loss from one entity to
another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed small loss to prevent
a large, possibly devastating loss.

The Insurance is the contract between two parties, the insurer (a co. selling insurance) and the
insured(entity buying the insurance).Within this contract, the insurer agrees to pay the insured
for financial losses arising out of any unforeseen events in return for a regular payment of
premium. Thus these insurance plans are also called as a Risk Cover Plans, which means to
financially compensate for losses that occur uncertainly through accident, illness, theft, natural
disaster etc.

In one classic example of insurance, a ship-owner insures a ship and receives payment if the
ship is damaged or destroyed. This is one of the earliest uses and developments of the concepts
like insurance. In case of annuities, such as pension, similar concept apply but in some sense in
the reverse. When applied to annuities, the term risk and loss are somewhat different from
traditional insurance as they concern the chances of living beyond life expectancy and need for
income during the period between annuitization and death.
Types of Insurance

Insurance policies cover the risk of life as well as other assets and valuables, such as home,
automobiles, jewelry, etc .on the basis of risk they cover, insurance policies can be classified into
two categories:

Life Insurance and General Insurance. As the term suggests, Life Insurance covers the
risk involved in a person’s life, while General Insurance provides financial protection against
unforeseen events, like accidents, flood, earthquake, diseases etc.

Purpose and need of Insurance:

Assets are insured because they are likely to be destroyed or made nonfunctional before expected
life time, through accidental occurrences. When the possible occurrences cause damage to the
asset, we say that the asset is exposed to risk. The risk only means that there is a possibility of
loss or damage. The earthquake may occur, but the building may not have been affected at all.
Insurance is done against the possibility that the damage may happen.

The Insurance does not protect the asset. It does not prevent its loss due to the peril. The
peril cannot be avoided through insurance. Insurance only tries to reduce the impact of the risk
on the owner of the asset and those who depend on the asset. They are the one who benefit from
the asset and therefore, would lose, when the asset is damaged. Insurance only compensates for
the losses and that too not fully.
HISTORY OF INSURANCE
History of Insurance:
The story of insurance is as old as the story of mankind. It has been known to exist in some form
or other since 3000 BC. As with so many things in so many facets of our lives, Insurance too was
born out of primary need and shaped by socio-economic realities of this time. The story goes
back to around 2100 BC., to the ancient civilization of Babylon and a business practice called
“Bottomry”. For all practical purposes form of marine insurance, bottomry enabled ship owners
to borrow money against their ships to pay for the trip. With piracy rampant on high seas,
traders and seafarers were reluctant to sail to other lands for fear of their lives and goods.
Bottomry gave them some semblance of security. The arrangement was that if only their ship
returned did traders have to repay to loan, along with interest, which was pegged at an above
market rate for the risk covered. So if they failed to make it back, they did not have to repay the
loan, thereby recovering some or all of the loans.

ORIGIN:
The origin of insurance business as in vogue at present is traced to the Lloyd’s coffee house in
London. Traders, who used to gather in the Lloyd’s coffee house in London, agreed to share the
losses to their goods while being carried by ships. The losses used to occur because of pirates
who robbed on the high seas or due to bad weather spoiling the goods or sinking the ship. In
India, insurance began in 1818 with Life insurance being transacted by English Company, the
Oriental Life Insurance Co.lmd. The first Indian Insurance Co. was the Bombay Mutual
Insurance Society Lmd., formed in 1870 in Mumbai. This was followed by the Bharat Insurance
Co. in 1896 in Delhi, the Empire of India in 1897 in Mumbai, the United India in Chennai, the
National, the National Indian and the Hindustan Cooperative in Kolkata.

However, later with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life
insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But lives were being treated as sub-standard
lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them. Bombay Mutual Life Assurance
Society heralded the birth of first Indian Life Insurance Company in the year 1870, and covered
Indian lives at normal rates. Starting as Indian enterprise with highly patriotic motives, insurance
companies came into existence to carry the message of insurance and social security through
insurance to various sectors of society. Bharat Insurance Company was also one of such
companies inspired by nationalism.

NATIONALIZATION
Post-independence, discontent against insurers reached a pitch. Business was chaotic, foreign
insurer were leaving the country and Indian insurers driven by greed and business considerations
weren’t earning much credibility. The cry for nationalizing insurance grew louder. A move that
insurers were of course opposed to. On 19t h January 1956 the life of insurance business was
Nationalized. In one swoop the govt. snapped up 245 insurers and provident societies. Eight
months later the LIC was formed which took over the businesses of the erstwhile private insurers
and started expanding at a frenetic pace. Today this monolith has 2100 branch offices, 800,000
agents, and offers a bevy of insurance and investment products. LIC marked insurance less as a
risk management tool and more as a saving instrument with a tax edge. A look at LIC’s policy
profile shows that just 18 percent of policies in force currently are protection plans; insurance
cum investment plans account for 60 percent, with the balance being pure investment plans. Still,
households embraced these safe investments avenues, with the sum assured (or the total value of
cover) increasing from Rs. 1476 corers in 1957 to Rs. 459201 corers in 1998-1999. Similar
circumstances lead to the nationalization of Non-life (or general insurance). As in life insurance,
pre-nationalization, there were an inordinately large number of insurers, many of whom were
notorious for floating investment norms and delaying settlement of claims Nonlife insurance was
nationalized in 1972. A general insurance corporation (GIC) was setup as a holding company; a
total of 107 private insurers were merged and grouped to form GIC’s four subsidiaries.
PRIVATISATION
There were various reasons given by the government to nationalize the insurance sector; take
insurance to the masses, facilitate the flow of long-term funds (which insurance companies, by
virtue of the business they are in, have ready access to) into development of infrastructure in the
country, and safeguard the interests of policyholders. Towards this end, state insurers did
develop insurance sector, though most experts believe these monopolies could have done much,
much more. In the early nineties, the government went on a reforms binge and started loosening
controls on Indian industry. In 1993, the government appointed the Malhotra committee, headed
by the former RBI governor R.N. Malhotra, to draw up a blueprint for insurance sector reforms.
The Panel submitted its report a year later, recommending privatization, backed by stiff entry
guidelines and stringent regulations, so as to avoid a repeat of the pre-nationalization fee-for-all.
The Insurance Regulatory and development Authority (IRDA) was formed to regulate the sector
and oversee the process of privatization. In 2000, the IRDA started giving out licenses, and a
year later the first of the private players started operations. The wheel had come full circle.
Under state controls, the insurance sector, both life and non-life grew steadily. Still, Indians are
not adequately insured and lag behind most countries. Total insurance penetration (insurance
premiums as percentage of gross domestic product) is dismal when compared to its economic
standing; just 2 percent of the population has some form of life insurance. But in this huge gap
lies a huge opportunity, which is why private insurers are queuing up. In many ways, the re-entry
of private insurers has marked a second coming for the sector. In just three years the sector has
undergone a makeover, offering the fruits of a free market; more choice, better service, quicker
settlement, tighter regulations, greater awareness. State insurers have been compelled to get their
act together.
Life Insurance in India:
The business of life insurance in India had started 190 years back in 1818 with the establishment
of the Oriental Life Insurance Company in Kolkata. Later on, nine years after country’s
Independence the insurance business in the country was under the state control. In 1956, the
Indian government nationalized general insurance business by creating the General Insurance
Corporation of India. The four subsidiaries companies under GIC – Oriental Insurance Company
Limited –started their operations under as GIC subsidiaries became independent companies since
December 2000.

Following the passage of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act in 1999,
India opened the insurance sector private players as well breaking the monopoly of public sector
players in the field. As a result of this open market policy the country witnessed significant
growth in the insurance sector. IRDA had started issuing licenses from 2001.

List of some life insurers

S.No. Name of the company

1. Bajaj Alliance Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

2. Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

3. HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

4. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

5. Life Insurance Corporation of India

6. Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

7. MetLife India Insurance Co. Ltd.

8. SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

9. Tata AIG Life Insurance Co.Ltd.

10. Reliance Life Insurance Co.Ltd.

11. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt.Ltd.

12. Sahara India Life Insurance Co.Ltd.

Profile of MetLife

MetLife: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company -1868

MetLife India Insurance Co.Ltd.is an affiliate of MetLife International Holdings, Inc., The
Jammu and Kashmir Bank, M.Pallonji and Co. Pvt.Ltd and other private investors. MetLife is
one of the fastest growing life insurance companies in the country.

It serves its customers by offering a range of innovative products to individuals and group
customers at more than 600 locations through its bank partners and company owned
officies.MetLife has more than 50,000 financial advisors, who help customers achieve peace of
mind across length and breadth of the country.

MetLife through its affiliates reaches more than 70 million customers in America, Asia Pacific
and Europe. Affiliated companies, outside of India, include the number one insurer in the United
States, with more than 90 of the top one hundred FORTUNE 500 companies. The MetLife
companies after life insurance, annuities, automobile and home insurance, retail banking and
other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance, reinsurance and retirement and
savings products and services to corporations and other institutions.
Partners
MISSION AND VISION OF THE COMPANY

VISION

The spirit of MetLife’s commitment………..

Build financial freedom for all through leadership in providing professional financial advice and
building long term relationships through innovative protection, accumulation and retirement
products, robust underwriting processes and creating a world-class customer service experience
for our customers.

OUR MISSION
Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company
and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions by 2010, provide 5
million customers in India world-class solutions for financial security and in the process add
significant value to our shareholders, associates and society.
• MetLife has been successful to create value and make a
difference……
"Coming into your own",
are performing as a Leader
to be really effective and
successful by acting and
making decisions
independently to get
results.
Functioning productively in
teams towards a common
purpose; realizing the
collective power of diverse
work-groups.
Conducting all business
endeavors with truth,
sincerity and fairness.
It's all about People,
MetLife's key resource.
MetLife will succeed
because we are winning
from within.
Operating with an intense
dedication to managing
monetary resources for
strong business results.
Continuously creating and
introducing new and
original ideas and ways of
doing things.
Some important facts about MetLife India:

Founded 2001

Started Operations Fey 2001-02

Headquarters Bangalore, India

World Wide Web Address www.metlife.co.in

CEO

Managing Director Rajesh Relan

Employees

Financial Advisors

Shareholders 6.1 million approx.

Banc assurance Tie-Ups J&K Bank, Axis Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank,

Karnataka Bank, Barclays
Number Of Products Over 20 products

Presence Through MetLife Office 192 offices In 131 cities

Presence Through Bank Partners 1910 offices in 686 cities

Ranked 37 in FORTUNE 500 Co’s

Paid up capital 1200 cr

ACHIEVMENTS
MetLife Achievements
MetLife enjoyed a golden performance on May 15, 2009 (New York) - At the 15th Annual FCS
Annual Portfolio Awards, the Financial Communications Society (FCS): four awards, all Gold
trophies, plus the Best-in-Show Multicultural award for its "South Asian Brand Television
Campaign," created by IW Group. The award was sponsored by Forbes. MetLife also won Gold
in the new ROI category, which recognized the success of marketing campaigns for their stated
return on investment.

➢ The "everyone" in MetLife’s vision took on added meaning in 2000 as the company
welcomed an important new constituency: shareholders. MetLife transformed itself from mutual
to stock ownership in April of that year through a demutualization and initial public offering that
was completed in just 18 months after Board authorization.

➢ In 2001, MetLife was the first insurance company to establish a financial holding company
with a nationally chartered bank. Leveraging its unparalleled distribution channels, MetLife
entered the retail-banking arena with the launch of MetLife Bank, making it an easy and
convenient way for MetLife’s customers to realize their financial goals.

➢ MetLife announced in 2002 that it would be continuing its long-standing relationship with
Snoopy and the rest of the PEANUTS® characters. The company signed a new contract that
would allow the characters to appear in MetLife’s domestic and international advertising for the
next 10 years.

➢ The sale of State Street Research & Management Company to Blackrock, Inc. was announced
in 2004. In line with MetLife’s strategy to focus on core business growth, the sale benefited
many of the company’s Individual and Institutional Business clients who held investments
through State Street Research, as it became part of one of the largest publicly traded investment
management firms in the U.S.
➢ The Company’s stated long-term goal is to become the recognized leader throughout the
world for relationship building, connectedness and caring in financial services – in the "giant
league" with over 100 million people as MetLife customers by the year 2010.

➢ MetLife took a major step toward realizing this goal in 2005, when it acquired Travelers Life
& Annuity and substantially all of Citigroup’s international insurance businesses for $12 billion.
Completed on July 1, 2005, the Travelers acquisition made MetLife the largest individual life
insurer in North America based on sales, the second largest provider of retail annuities and the
largest provider of institutional annuities.

➢ Working Mother magazine honored MetLife in 2005 by naming the company one of the "100
Best Companies for Working Mothers," for the seventh consecutive year. In 2005, the company
was named to Diversity Inc.’s list of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity. In early 2006, MetLife
was also named to the National Association for Female Executives’ annual list of Top 30
Companies for Executive Women.

➢ In 2006, MetLife appointed C. Robert (Rob) Hendrickson chairman of the board of directors,
president and chief executive officer of MetLife, Inc. Hendrickson was appointed CEO on March
1, 2006 and chairman of the board on April 25, 2006.

➢ In the future, MetLife will continue to grow its business with focus, innovation and
profitability. This will be accomplished by drawing on the reservoir of history that has produced
an enduring set of corporate values based on more than 138 years of integrity, social
responsibility, strong leadership and financial strength.
➢ Ranked 6th In Fortune Magazine 2009 List of “America’s Most Admired Companies”
➢ Named by Forbes magazine as “The Best Managed Insurance Company in America (2008)”
➢ 3rd Runner up in customer loyalty survey Conducted by Business Standard & AC Nielson in
2008.

Celebrating 140 years, MetLife, Inc. leading provider of insurance and financial services with
operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions.
Through its domestic and international subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more
than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United
States.
MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking
and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance and retirement and saving
products and services are offered to corporations and various types of other institutions.

MetLife has, all through its existence, used the latest technology to offer the best in-class
service to its customers. The efforts in recent times has been to bring services as close to the
doorsteps of the customers as is possible and to remove the constraints of time and space.
Services such as Premium collection, change of address, viewing the present status of the
policies are available on the internet, using the MetLife Portal.

MetLife has always been committed to making a positive difference in the lives of the
individuals and communities. Today, that commitment drives volunteer work and philanthropy
across the globe. Working with non-profit organizations, MetLife supports programs that provide
young people with the skills they need to succeed in life and create opportunities for people of all
ages.

MetLife’s core values are personal responsibility, people count, partnership, integrity and
honesty, innovation and financial strength. These values also shape the responsibility to the
communities where the organization conducts its business.
MetLife…….Where work meets life!

Work at MetLife…….

MetLife India is in the most exciting phase of its evolution in India today. They are among the
three fastest growing insurance companies and this translates into amazing opportunities for their
associates.

As far as work is concerned the MetLife operations team is always ready to help the people
around them.

The employees at MetLife prefer to work as a team rather than working on an individual bases.
The goal achieved collectively is far better than individually achieved. When a particular task is
obtained in a team there are very less chances of faults, rejections, errors etc.
The team at MetLife operations works with full enthusiasm. They believe in the saying that
“work should not be something you do just to make ends meet. It should provide
satisfaction……

Working as a team they use:

1. The customer interaction cycle to ensure smooth handoffs.

2. Gives immediate attention.

3. Share responsibility for good results.

4. Review workflow to improve handoffs.

Branch operations team performs some of the most important functions like:

a) They help in processing of all new business applications.

b) They ensure that the application, money, medical reports and the documentation reach
the HO for underwrittting in a correct and synchronized manner.

c) They also play an important role in customer service and policy servicing.

Core competences of MetLife Staff includes:-

Honesty, Trustworthy.
 Responsible/adaptive to change.

Quick to comprehend complex issues.

Customer taken first.

Personal effectiveness.

Decision making is courageous, contributes, listen and then takes action.

Knows the business and looks ahead and plans for future.

Innovative – forward looking.

The team is always ready to take active participation and facilitation of team effectiveness

Objectives of MetLife Insurance Co.Pvt.Lmd.

• Spread the insurance of life and other valuable assets in particular to the rural areas and to
the socially and economically backward classes with a view to reaching all insurable
persons in the country and providing them adequate financial cover at the time of mishap.

• Maximum mobilization of people’s savings by making insurance linked savings

adequately attractive.

• The funds are deployed to the best advantage of the investors as well as the community as
a whole keeping in view national priorities and obligations of attractive returns.

• Conduct business with utmost economy and with the full realization that the money
belong to the policyholders.
 • Meet the carious life insurance needs of the community that would arise in the changing
social and economic environment.

• Involve all people working in the corporation to the best of their capabilities in furthering
the interests of the insured public by providing efficient service with courtesy.

• Promote amongst all agents and employees of the corporation a sense of participation,
pride and job satisfaction through discharge of their duties with dedication towards
achievement of corporate objectives.

The ultimate goal at MetLife India, simple in concept and impressive in breadth, is to build
financial freedom for the customers. For the customers that means providing products and
services that allow them to enjoy life and trust in the fact that MetLife will be there for them.

MetLife offers a basket of schemes to meet the various needs of an individual and his/her family.
Some of them are as under:

Products of MetLife India Insurance:

• Met Suvidha

• Met Suvidha Rural

• Met Suraksha

• Met Bavishya

• Met Junior

• Met Sukh
• Met Mortgage Protector Plus

• Met Pension

• Met Smart Plus

• Met Growth

• Met Loan Assure

• Met Magic

• Met Easy

• Met Health Care

• Met Gold

• Met Monthly Income Plan

• Met Advantage

• Met Platinum
Introduction to study

“Branch Operations and New business processing at MetLife”

Branch Operations…. “The face of the MetLife Customer Service and Operations”

The Branch Operation is the essence of MetLife. It plays a very critical role to both
its internal and external customers.

The Branch Operations team performs some of the most important functions. They help in processing all
new business applications. They ensure that the application, money, medical reports & the documentation
reach the HO for underwriting in a correct and synchronized manner. They also play an important role in
customer service & policy servicing. They provide operational support to Sales by acting as an interface
between them and Central Ops teams, including providing support with relevant MIS, formats etc.
 OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT

Regional
Manager

Deputy
Manager

Executive Executive Regional IT

Underwriter Operations Finance Engineer
Executive

Service
Coordinator
 Office Boy

Deputy Manager Operations: DMO leads department of operations and is

responsible for the smooth and efficient working of the department and the
employees working there. DMO is also responsible for the maintenance of the
system for better results.

Executive Underwriter: The UW has been trained to scrutinize and check the
new policies that are brought in by the agents and FA’s for their authenticity and
correctness so that benefits of insurance are given to the deserving clients.
Executive Operations: EO has been assigned the job of collection of renewals or
premiums and issuance of the premium acknowledgement slips to the customers.

Regional Finance Executive: RFE has been assigned the task of generating the
challans of the money collected through renewals and premium in the form of
cash, cheques, credit advices etc and deposit that money in bank in the name of
MetLife.

IT Engineer: the IT Engineer takes care of the whole computerized system in the
office. He is responsible for the internet connectivity, system synchronization etc
that causes smooth running of the work.

Service Co-coordinator: He performs the task of data entry i.e. when new policy
applications are received; they feed the applicant details into their main data base
for record and future use.

Functions of branch operation:-

New Business:
 Quality checking of all physical applications received from sales.

Following up with central processing unit (CPU) for data entry and quality check of
proposals.

Following up with the medical service providers for coordination of medicals.

Premium payment collections:

Banking of instruments received as fresh or renewal premium.

File Management:

Forwarding physical folders of Non Medical cases for archival and medical or referred to
Underwriters (RUW) cases to HO for further processing by medical underwriters.

Customer Service Touch-Points:

Answering and accepting customer queries, requests and complaints and logging them
through Met Desk

MIS:

Offline day-to-day to be maintained at the branch like application login details, physical
file dispatch MIS, pending/placed status, medical status, issuance details, PD dispatch
etc.

Conducting regular Bandhan Sessions:

 It is an interactive session between Sales and Operations. It gives an insight about the
branch performance and new updates and initiatives in the last one month.

Training:

They also deliver training on the basic operations, underwriting guidelines and application
form filling to sales.

Arranging for home visit medical and follow up for medical is with the local service
providers.

Handling queries regarding commission cheques.

Handling PD dispatch to customers whose policies are couriered to the branch.

Managing cheque Dishonors.

Handling distribution operation activities.

Support to Sales from application login to placing and regular follow- up in completing the
requirements for pending cases.

New Business Processing:

New business (NB) constitutes that part of the Customer Service and Operations function that
deals with the processing of fresh applications logged by sales at branch till issuance of policy
and dispatch of the policy Docket to end customer. The NB team at MetLife performs the
following activities:
 • File Management Process and Archival: - it includes to and fro movement of the files
between the various functions and storage of files received post issuance and maintaining
the records and retrieving the same whenever required.

• Managing the Medical Service Providers (UHCI ,Health India)

• Dispatching the medicals to HNI customers post decision of the case and also in case of
customer request.

• Policy Printing and Dispatch:- Post Issuance Policy printing and dispatch activities within
the specified SLA’s

• Handling all refunds pertaining to application cancellations (pre-Issuance)

New Business Process Flow

The diagram on the next page gives the typical flow of the activities in New
Business starting from logging of a proposal at a branch to Policy dispatch to the
customer.
New Business Related Information & Communication

Communication Process

•A letter is send to the customer at his communication address for:

o Pending requirement

o Outstation Cheque ( informing the customer, that the case might get
delayed for being an out-stationed cheque)

•Communication to the Sales Team on the case status & pending requirements

o A consolidated e-mail to the FAs (for all FAs who have their e-mails
registered with company)

o A case wise SMS is send to the FA

New Business Application Status through SMS Alert

• To receive and know the latest status of new business applications logged, the following steps are
to be followed:

1. SMS to be sent to "56161" by typing a keyword “MET NB 12345789”, where 123456789 is the
Application Number

2. Auto SMS would be sent to the respective mobile user giving the current status of the application

3. If a case is in Pending Requirement Status, the actual pending requirement will be sent to the user
through SMS

4. Sample Text: "Status, For App 134688494, MER, ECG, FBS is the Pending requirements."

5. If a wrong application no. is entered, error message will be “Sorry you have entered an invalid
application no., please provide a valid application number.”
There are the 9 steps involved in logging in an Application at a Branch.

1. Receiving Applications

2. Accepting or Rejecting the Application

3. Doing a Quality Check

4. Data Entry in Swift

5. Raising Payments in Swift

6. Scanning through Docue Capture

7. Generating BDC

8. Banking Payment Instruments

9. Dispatching Physical Files for Archival

1. Receiving Applications: - Application Forms are received from agency and banc assurance.

•Agency includes:

o Sales Manager

o C-WAD

•Banc assurance & Business Partners includes:

o Corporate

o Bank Partners

The applications received from agency and banc assurance & business partners can be accepted and can
also be rejected. In both the cases i.e. if the applications are accepted or rejected the following points have
to be noted:-
Accepting or Rejecting the Application

If Accepted

a. Validate all fields in Swift

b. Raise payments through Payment Details Screen

c. After raising the payment, click the submit button

If Rejected

d. Update the reject reason in Swift

e. Return the application to sales for necessary corrections

While doing a Quality Check the following things must be noted:-

• Application form must be correctly filled

• Required documents must be attached

• Customer attestation

• Premium payment

• Benefit illustration must be

• New Business control checklist

Application Form Filling

Documentation Attached

3. Doing a Quality Check

The Branch OPS team does the first level quality check on the Application Form. Ensure the
following-
 • Application must be completely filled

• All overwriting and corrections should be counter signed by both PI/PO

• All required documents should be attached ,correct and attested by PI/PO

• All additional questionnaires if required are filled and attached with the form.

• The premium payment amount should be correct as per the system.

• For all medical cases Medicals are to be fixed through UHCI taking TA codes (telephonic
ass’s codes).

4. Data Entry in Swift

Data Entry in Swift Data Entry in Swift

When the Application Form is received, the OPS executive at the branch level needs to do a basic level
data entry in Swift. The following steps need to be followed –

• Login with NT used id and password

• Data entry of required details in general screen

• Data entry of details in application information screen

• Data entry of PI details in PI details screen

• Data entry of sourcing details - Sales

Login with your NT user id and password

5. Raising Payments in Swift:

Raising payment in swift it’s very necessary that the documentation attached application should be
completely filled. For this purpose go to payment details screen, than choose

Select the following through dropdown menu:

• Mode of payment - Chq / DD/ Credit Advise – Axis or J&K Bank

If it is MICR than mention MICR code and for a credit advice, collecting branch should be
J&K or Axis bank

• In case payment is made through cash (PAN) enclose the copy with application self attested by
PI/PO.

6. Application Scanning

Once the payment is raised in SWIFT then the next and very important step is its
scanning.

For scanning an application the following steps are to be followed:

Scan the application through Docue Capture

1. Login to Assembling Process Scan the application through Do cue Capture

• In order to login to Assembling Process :

o Check whether the application has been scanned properly or not

o If not scanned properly, then delete the package and rescan

2. Login to indexing process

o Mention the required details in indexing and submit the application

3. Check whether the application reflects in the Publish folder or not

4. Once the applications are reflected they should not remain. If remained, check the
RTS client server

The image then moves to the Image Assembly Team and from there, further to the CPU
CPU Processing
CPU is responsible for the completion of Data entry and Quality check in the system “SWIFT”.
All CPU related service requests should be MANDATORILY be logged in Talisma.

MetLife India has identified vendors experienced in Life insurance for new business application
processing and outsourced the transactional activities to them. For providing resources for Data
entry and Quality check at CPU. Though the processing is outsourced to vendor staff, however
the responsibility of completion of these activities within agreed timelines and quality lies with
the MetLife CPU team.

Points to remember while scanning New Business Application:

• All documents should be scanned in 200 DPI X and Y dimensions and paper size should be
A4

o If the resolution is not 200 DPI, than rescan the document with 200 DPI

• For Met Easy and Met Advantage : Ensure that the documents are photocopied with 86%
before scanning

o If documents are not photocopied at 86%, rescanning of a document should be

done.

• All packages should continuously move out from the local publish folder from branches

o If the documents are not moving out, then ask local IT person to check whether
RTS Client is running out and is properly configured.

• Proposal form should appear in assembly step after scanning: Ensure that the correct
patch sheets are used for scanning

o If the correct patch sheets are used and still the problem persist, then take a new
photocopy of the patch sheet and try scanning the document again

• Only correct version of the application form should be used

 o In case the correct version of application forms are not used , it should be rejected
by branch operations

7 & 8. Generating BDC in Swift and Banking Payment Instruments

•For all uploaded applications, the payment instruments / cash should be deposited

o Bank Deposit Challans (BDCs) should be raised through SWIFT

only

•Deposit the instruments and cash as per the process

Payment Acceptance

• Payment instruments (Cheques / Demand Drafts) from customers as received and accepted
should ONLY be favoring “MetLife India Insurance Company Limited”

9. Dispatch of Physical Files

NB File Movement

File Movement on Weekly basis –

• Branches dispatch all physical folders on the prescribed day for all uploaded cases of the
week, via courier. Each region will forward the compiled folders of all the NB uploaded
cases of the week, for archival on the specified date (against current daily dispatch). The
process is targeted towards cost savings.

In order to go for file movement following points must be noted:

• Branches in Rural area need to confirm the delivery time (at Bangalore) with courier
services & opt for courier services where delivery time is less than 48 hours

• In case of a holiday on the scheduled dispatch date, dispatch to be done on the previous
day.
 Policy Printing and Dispatch

This process includes the Printing and dispatch of Policy Document for Placed cases at MetLife
India.

Data for all Placed cases in a particular day is picked up for policy dispatch
- All related documents for these placed cases are converted to the PDF format.
 Documents are quality checked. The cases where IT defect and data entry
mistakes are found are logged in system and an apology letter is sent to the customers.

- Printing of all quality checked cases is done

- Then the stamp duty for all printed policies is paid for, called as franking process.

Then the courier segregation is done on the basis of serviceable pin codes and the PDs are
dispatched to the customer communication address.

End of Day Activity Process

End of day activity is done for reconciliation activity of cash received at branch towards
applications, policies & MR Receipts.

EOD process is a ‘mandatory process’ to be followed at the end of each working day and will
enable the Branch Ops to generate the following details:
 1. Cash denomination and list of financial instruments collected for the day
2. Pre – BDC (Bank deposit Challan) View for validation
3. Generate and Print the final BDC

Branch will not be able to generate a BDC (Bank deposit challan) till the time the EOD process
is completed.

Branch Operations should note:

• Pre BDC option is provided only for validation of cash and instruments in hand, no printouts
to be taken

•Bank Deposit Challan (BDC) in SWIFT should be generated & printed ONLY at the end
of the day

•BDC printouts should ONLY be handed over to CMS for banking purposes

Pre BDC View Report

Pre-BDC view option has been enabled for the branches. Branches can now view cases which
are pending for BDC generation.

Benefits:

• Branches can get a report on cases which are pending for BDC generation (Both New
Business & Renewals).

• Branches can identify the errors before generating the BDC.

• Manual BDC corrections can be avoided.

Checkpoints to Branches:

1. No individual mails to be sent with a request of negative upload to New

Business/Finance team.
 2. If any instruments returns at branches and if the same is not actioned by HO,
branches should log an interaction in Talisma with BDC copy and Return Memo.

3. Branches should compulsorily paste complete & clear acknowledged BDCs in

FTP on regular basis.

4. Regional Ops-Heads to ensure on the compliance of above mentioned

checkpoints.

New Business Data Entry Corrections

• NB Correction refers to the process of amendment done for identified Data Entry Errors /
Customer initiated Pre-issuance Requests.

• NB Correction at NB team

NB Corrections can be processed as:

1. AFI-- Alter from Inception’ refers to case alteration from inception. AFI is processed in
SWIFT
2. Client level changes- Client level correction refers to case alteration at the current stage
with no impact on UW. Such alteration is processed in Life Asia.

AFI Case updation:

1. For all AFI cases, policy notes are updated with reasons in LA
2. Daily AFI cases are uploaded in Opstracker (metapp03) with reasons

NB Correction Categorization
Talisma interaction Request Chart to be followed as below for NB Corrections

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objective of the study is to know the actual problem of lapses and
loopholes in the whole system/process,

The following objectives were set for the present study:

1) To study the Branch Operations and New Business Processing at MetLife Srinagar.

2) To find the discrepancy in the data for the rest of the modes.

3) To know the factors responsible for the lapsed policies.

4) To go for the revival of the policies

. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

By this study the company will come to know:-

 The issues related to new business processing at branch office.

 The limitations regarding the working of MetLife staff.
 Company image and acceptability of the products in the market.
 About the market position of Company in comparison with other Insurance companies.
 About the availability of its products in the Market and services at the same time.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

 The project directly deals with interaction with the staff and few customers of the
customers of MetLife Srinagar. So this project helps me to understand the corporate
communication system.
 This study is helpful to find out the sales trends of the MetLife products and its effect on
consumers value.
 This study makes me understand how the challenging situations are handled.
 This study provides an insight to the company that what kind of strategy must be adopted
in order to increase the sales, reduce the OTCR rejection rates and ultimately how to
increase the market position of the company.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way of systematically solving the research problems. It can be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. The methodology
adopted for the study was a keen observation and continuous interaction with MetLife
staff. A structured questionnaire was administered to find out the reasons responsible for
lapsation, OTR and FA rejections. It also includes the graphs that depict the feasible
modes of payment and passive codes for FA’s. Employees of MetLife were asked few
questions regarding operations that are being undertaken at branch as a whole and with
regards to the processing of New Business. The data collected is very helpful for the
Company so that the company can work upon the data collected and work in the areas
where the improvement is needed.

DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

Interpretation and analysis of data helps the company in taking various important decisions
such as work force expansion/contraction, facility expansion, promotional activities etc. The goal
of a data analysis is to determine the attractiveness of a company and to understand its evolving
opportunities and threats as they relate to the strengths and weaknesses.

Thus for the purpose of interpretation and analysis, data has been collected from
questionnaire and interviewing the employees. To collect the main data I interviewed the
executives of MetLife Srinagar on daily basis. I used to sit with them on regular basis so as to
analyze their daily work, their dealings, operations that they carry etc. I keenly studied the
branch operations team and interviewed the employees so as to analyze how they perform
their regular activities and what problems they are facing. I analyzed what are the basic
causes of rejections of application forms, how and when the rejects are rectified, number of
rejections per days etc. More above I raised many questions to the employees of MetLife
regarding branch operations and New Business Processing.
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR EMPLOYEES

1. Do you find New Business Processing better?

Perseption

Yes
No

Data Interpretation and analysis:

We can sum up from the above chart that more than 85% of employees says that
present method is better because of the reason that 90% of the business comes
from J&K bank that is much better than the business coming from agency. They
work on a Module Know Your Customer (KUC).In this regards full knowledge
about customer is taken. The documents are formatted by the bank and they also
go for the verifications so as to make the document authentic for the company.
 Thus lessening the burden of the executives at MetLife. So they find New
Business Processing a better way out.

2. Due to introduction of new business are you facing any

problem if yes specify?

Sales

No Yes

Data Interpretation and analysis:

We can analyze from the chart that more than 85% employees say that with the introduction of
New Business no problem is being faced till date but more than 10% employees mentioned some
of the problems that they are facing while processing the New Business. The major problem
among them is scanning of applications. The scanning issue makes the work flow hectic for the
executives. It was also analyzed that all most all policyholders does not attach full documents
that are required by the company thus acting as a barrier to process flow. Since the business at
MetLife Srinagar has shown a rapid growth due to introduction of NBP this result in increasing
the burden on executives and leaving them exhausted and unable to concentrate on their work.
Thus the company should take the corrective measures regarding above mentioned problems and
recruit more executives as per requitment. The company should find out a resolution so as to
overcome the issues regarding NBP which will help the company to increase its sales and
capture more customers.

3. What are the issues to customers regarding their policy

documents?

Sales

No proper communication
about policy
Lack of Knowledge/Information

Too Many Formalities

Data interpretation and Analysis:

With the help of above graph we can clearly see that the customers have various issues regarding
their policy. More than 60% executives say that there is no proper communication regarding
policy between the customer and agent the reason behind this is customers’ carelessness. As
now-a-days it has became a trend that the customers hand over all the required documents to the
agents and get free from there part of work and then the application forms are filled by the sales
managers or the sales agents themselves. The agents make the changes were ever they want
without prior permission of the clients. This creates a problem in future when the customer gets
aware about it.
It can also be seen from the chart that more than 10% employees say that main issue is lack of
knowledge and incomplete information about the policy which is not revealed by the agents to
their clients. It was also analyzed that there are too many formalities that are to be performed by
the customer due to this reason customer handover their form to agent and thus faces many
problems in future. Thus in order to overcome this problem, customer should be provided with
full knowledge about the policy and filling of application forms so that they get aware about
every major and minor things included in their policy thus results in abolishment of all the
problems in future.

4. To what extent new business has shown increase in sales?

Sales

40%to 60%
60%to 80%
80%to 90%

Data Interpretation and analysis

By analyzing all the data that has been taken from employees, it can be clearly seen that the New
Business has shown more than 85% increase in sales as the business is increased to double since
New Business has been introduced. The main reason of its success is that the company is
working through the power of the relationships by existing and already wide array of innovative
services and enormously diverse and talented work force to meet the challenges of an ever
changing market place. It was also analyzed that with the introduction of NBP the more and
more clients were getting attached with the company. Incorporation of NB is providing company
with the customers having full trust and faith as their requirements and commitments made to
them are fulfilled by the company. Thus results in attracting more clients and hence increasing
the sales at a rapid rate.

5. New business is grabbing more market due to?

Sales
Targets achieved

Easy

Attractive nature

fullfills customer expectations

Data Interpretation and analysis

With the help of above graph we can clearly see the major reason behind grabbing more market
is that the target given by MetLife Inc.Co. is being achieved by the executives who results in an
increase of monthly targets and thus helps in grabbing more market. It was analyzed that other
reasons for grabbing more market includes the attractive nature of the New Business and due to
its easy processing’s. The New Business is fulfilling customers’ expectations at an increased rate
which is a major cause of its success.

6. Mode of payment received by finance.

Sales

Cash

Cheque

Bank accounts

Data Interpretation and analysis

The above chart depicts that more than 55% executives said that most of the payments
reach them through cash, as the customers find it a better and safe mode of payment.
They prefer to pay premium as cash in order to avoid any kind of fault made by the
banks. It was also analyzed that about 20% of the customers pay their premium
 through cheques. More than15% executives said that most of the customers prefer to
make their payments through their respective bank accounts because they find this
mode very easy as the amount gets automatically deducted from their respective
accounts.

7. Most feasible mode of premium payment.

Sales

Monthly

Quaterly

Half yearly

Yearly

Data Interpretation and analysis

It can be seen from the above graph that the maximum customers pay their premium on
monthly basis as they find it feasible than other modes and about 20% of the customers pay
quarterly, yearly and half yearly. The choice depends on many factors like regularity of income,
occupation, market conditions etc.

8. Reasons responsible for lapsation of the policy

Sales
Late payments

Bank default

Not able to pay

Not aware about online

payments

Data Interpretation and analysis

After analyzing the data it was found that there are various reasons responsible for lapsation of
the policy includes :Bank default, Customer not aware about the online payments,
Customer not able to pay, Customer pays in time but payment gets reconciled late etc.
It can be clearly seen from the chart above that the main cause of policy lapsation is due to late
payments made by the customers due to certain reasons like having some financial problem,
customer out of station, busy schedule, market circumstances etc. It was also analyzed that more
than 25% gave the reason behind lapsation of a policy is banks default as they did not remind the
customers on time and when a customer makes his premium payments but the payment gets
reconciled late. This happens due to the CSO’s ignorance, system error, service problem causing
workload at MetLife staff and resulting in late reconciliation of premium which finally results in
policy lapsation. Thus in order to overcome the problem the proper actions should be taken
wherever required. The company should provide the staff with an improved system and fully
trained and responsible CSO’s which could minimize the lapsation cases.

9. OTCR (over the counter rejections)

OTCR
incomplete application

incomplete documentation

product related issues

CPU QC &DE reject

Data Interpretation and analysis

The above graph clearly shows that majority of the OTCR is due to the incomplete documentation
followed by product related issues, CPU QC and DE reject

• Incomplete application and documentations includes:-inappropriate income proof,

nominee title mismatch, non availability of appointee details etc.
 • Product related issues include: ration card not applicable in ID proof, non
availability of income proof etc.

• CPU QC and DE reject is due to: nominee gender mismatch, non availability of rider
term, type of cover not mentioned etc.

The data was collected by taking into consideration the rejection table captured in Swift and after
interviewing the employees. In order to overcome such rejections the agents should reveal all
material facts and give full information to the customer and should make him/her fully understand
about the policy requirements. He should give a briefing about the filling of the application forms
so as the mistakes are avoided and the rejections are minimized. One of the important suggestion to
the sales agents and sales managers is that they should not fill up the application forms of their own
instead should made the customer himself to fill the full details. This will help a lot in minimizing
the OTCR rejection rate.

10. Distribution operations (DOPS)

Financial Advisor Recruitment

FAREJUCTIONRATE
FA Application Rejuction
Rate First Time
FA Application Rejuction
Rate Second Time
FA Application Rejuction
Rate Third Time

Data Interpretation and analysis

It’s clear from above graph that FA rejections are more than 70% first time and after double
check the FA rejects are due but very few as compared to first time and when the check is done
for the third time the rejects are just 2% to 3%.

By day by day, the FA’s are becoming more experienced and the system of service is getting
improved and the MetLife have entered into the maturity stage of growth. The communication
barriers are getting less and less with time and MetLife is moving towards better quality service.

11. What are the various ways to reinstate the policy?

Sales

Cash
Cheque
Direct credit
Data Interpretation and analysis

After interpreting the different ways of reinstatement the policy it was found that more than 80
percent of staff says that paying of cash is a better way than any other way but at the same
time more than 20 percent says formulation of cheque is an appropriate way.

12. After how much time a policy can be reinstated?

Sales

1 year
2 year
3 year
4 year
 13. Is the company providing you full information about NBP?

Sales

Yes
No

Data Interpretation and analysis

After going through the data collected it was found that more than 85% employees said that they
are regularly being updated with the information regarding New Business and others as well. If
the company brings any change in the policy or adds something new to it the staff at MetLife is
informed about such changes through mails. The company is giving its best to the employees so
as to avoid any type of mistake. MetLife is trying to work with full accuracy and efficiency so as
to lead its competitors and it has succeeded to a very large extent. The main motto of MetLife is
to meet the customer expectations.

14. Which level of quality best describes the New Business?

Sales

High Quality
Good Quality
Average Quality

Data Interpretation and analysis

Today, a time when consumers are feeling a greater financial burden than ever before, MetLife is
helping millions of customers create their own personal safety net. At no time in the company’s
history has MetLife been as well positioned to capitalize on its history, its reputation for security
and stability, and its innovative products and services as it is today.

The New Business is at its peak and grabbing the market at increasing rate. It is analyzed that
maintaining the quality of the products helps in improving and increasing the sales and strengthening
the market position of the company in the long run. The above graph shows that more than 60%
employee rate the NBP as High Quality product because its easy way of processing and has solved
the problem which the employee used to face before its incorporation. The company should also
focus on improving its quality day by day which can help to change the perception of those who
think that the qualities of the products are of average quality.

Conclusions and Suggestions

CONCLUSION

With the help of data collected it can be clearly concluded that the various methods
and strategies adopted by MetLife to increase the acceptability of their products
among the customers, and to increase their market share and market position are
proving to be of great significance for the Company. The data collected clearly
reveals the reasons for lapsation, OTCR and FA rejection rate and at the same time
it shows the benefits and services provided by the Company to its clients. It can be
also seen that more than 75 % of customers like the products offered by MetLife
and the reason for such result is purely quality service, taking customers first and
variety of products which almost serves people of all segments and age group. The
data also reveals the areas that need to be taken into consideration by the
Company in order to strengthen its market position.

After analyzing the data it can be concluded the percentage or proportion of the
total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company or
the portion or percentage of sales of MetLife products is much greater than the
Products offered by Bajaj Alliance and LIC. Thus to maintain and strengthen the
market position and attract more and more clients, the company should give a
deep thought with respect to the various suggestions and findings that has been
given after interpretation and analysis of the data collected.
SUGGESTIONS

Some of the suggestions that I feel are very important for the Company are as: -

 The working methodology of almost all the employees is satisfactory. They

just need little bit of improvement so that they can build more effective
relationship with the customers.

 Almost every executive is working hard; they just need to focus little bit more
on the QC and should bring into practice proper scanning of the documents
so that the rejection rate of OTC and FA is reduced in future and the precious
time is saved and at the same time if sales will ensure smooth consistent new
application in flow throughout the month, automatically the OTCR rate can be
brought down.

 It has also been observed that LIC is gaining popularity aggressively through
its credit policies, schemes to customers and Varity of promotional tools
which help in gaining the trust of the customers on the company. Therefore
the Company should take this thing into consideration as customers are the
most important part who helps in maintaining the image of the company.

 Approximately 70%of FA applications get rejected at first check which is a

huge figure and on top of that when it comes for second check the previous
figure does not get minimized completely thus increasing the work load and
especially when man power is less. So in order to reduce the FA rejects the
sound training should be given to the sales managers such that they can
make the FA’s understand completely how an application is to be filled. It will
help the department for doing business in shorter time and not placing the
operation dpt.on hold.

 I have also observed that a lot of commitments have been made by the
agents which then are not being fulfilled by the Company like providing extra
benefits, providing discounts etc. So it is my suggestion to them
 “commitment should be done only when you know that you can fulfill them
otherwise it breaks the trust of the customers on the company which also
makes them to doubt the agents in future.

 The company should also start opening more branches in different areas in
Kashmir which will increase the credibility of the company as a whole and
increasing sales force which would help the Company in increasing its
business. Therefore the company should take steps to target the rural
markets as well as the inner areas of various parts of various areas which are
still untapped.

 Company should give a thought about this very important issue to increase
the staff at MetLife Srinagar as observed there is a lack of staff .the Company
should recruit the personnel to lessen the burden and perform in a better
way.

 The company should also give more attention towards proper promotion of
Met Easy so that their acceptability increases from the customers’ side as
these are the products which have got great potential to increase the market
share of the Company. Thus these products require extraordinary effort in
order to grow point share.

 MetLife should provide user friendly online system which will help the
customers to check their policy details anywhere and at any time. This will
save the time of staff which gets into answering to the calls from customers
side.

Four basic ways I concluded by which company can improve its position and
widen its market are:-

1. By making some of the important changes in the products so that it is better

than our competitors.

2. We can change premium rates of our products or offer special benefits for
customers.
 3. Alternatively we must find out new methods to sell the products so that
customers find it easy to buy.

4. Finally, we can make use of promotional activities and materials to advertise

and promote our products.

Thus we can say that by overcoming the loopholes there is ample scope for
MetLife to grow to the fullest.

LIMITATIONS

In attempt to make this project authentic and reliable, every possible step was
taken into consideration to make this project fruitful. The main limitations are
as follows: -

 The biggest issue was the unexpected unfavorable conditions in Srinagar

such as Hartal which created a lot of problems. Further deep analysis could
have been done if the conditions would have been favorable. Even the day
after when there was no Hartal, the staff was so busy that they hardly had
any time to give their valuable views.

 Weather was also a crucial factor as again weather conditions were also not
favorable which made it difficult to interact more.

 Due to the limitation of time only less data was collected and got less time to
study. So it is possible that some potential source might have remained
untapped.

 Employee hesitant to disclose the true facts.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF MetLife India
STRENGTHS
 Good company image
 Strong distribution network.
 Products Met Suvidah (traditional plan),  Unable to capture inner parts of some
Met Bavisha and Met Monthly Income
cover the maximum customers.
 Well defined techniques to increase
company image and company position.
 Wide range of products is available
with different benefits.
 Business of MetLife is good
comparison to its competitors.
WEEKNESSESS
 Do not provide proper scheme and
offers to the customers.
areas of district Srinagar.
 High premium rates of the products
from the co’s side.
 Commitments made by the company to
the customers are not fulfilled.
 Forcing people to do policies even if
in they are not interested.
 Not revealing material facts about the
policy.
 OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

 High growth rate of insurance co’s. in  Intense competition with competitors

the market. as better schemes and more benefits
 Untouched customers. are being offered.
 Decreased premium rates.
 Threat of losing market because of
neglecting the issues of the customers.
 LIC and Bajaj Allianz are the major
threat to the company as their business
rate is higher than MetLife.

BCG Matrix of MetLife

]
 Question Mark

?
Star

Cash Cows Dogs

High
Business
Growth
Rate

Low
High Relative Market share
Low

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix is a simple tool to assess a company’s position in
terms of its product range. It helps a company think about its products and services and make
decisions about which it should keep, which it should let go and which it should invest in further.
This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in product
management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

CASH COWS: -
As leaders in a mature market, cash cows exhibit a return on assets that is greater than the market
growth rate – so they generate more cash than they consume. These units should be ‘milked’
extracting the profits and investing as little as possible. They provide the cash required to turn
question marks into market leaders. The products of MetLife that comes under this category Met
Suvidha and Met Bhavisha.
QUESTION MARKS:-
Question marks are products that grow rapidly and as a result consume large amounts of cash,
but because they have low market share they don’t generate much cash. The result is large net
cash consumption. This suggests that these products have potential but may require huge ever, a
competing force extraordinary effort in order to grow point share. A question mark has the
potential to gain market share and become a star, and eventually a cash cow when the market
growth slows. If it doesn’t become a market leader it will become a dog when market growth
declines. Question marks need to be analyzed carefully to determine if they are worth the
investment required to grow market share. This suggests that they have potential but may require
huge ever, a competing force extraordinary effort in order to grow point share. The product of
MetLife that comes under this category is Met Easy.

DOGS: -
Dogs have a low market share and a low growth rate and neither generates nor consumes a large
amount of cash. However, dogs are cash traps because of the money tied up in a business that has
little potential. Such businesses are candidates for divestiture. Due to some reasons the products
of MetLife that have been stopped are Met Smart Plus and Met 100.

STARS: -
Stars generate large sums of cash because of their strong relative market share, but also consume
large amounts of cash because of their high growth rate. So the cash being spent and brought in
approximately nets out. If a star can maintain its large market share it will become a cash cow
when the market growth rate declines. The products of MetLife that comes under this category
are Met Monthly Income Plan and Met Gold Plus. All these products have strong market
share as compared to the products offered by others. Therefore, with the help of the data
collected it can be concluded that MetLife as a Company comes in the category of Stars.
ANNEXURE

Glossary

TERMS USED IN INSURANCE & LIFE INSURANCE

INSURER/ASSURER; The insurance company with whom an article is insured is known as

insurer. Also known as underwriter, the insurer issues insurance policies. In life insurance the
insurance company is called ASSURER.
INSURED/ASSURED; the person who obtains insurance policies from an insurance company is
called insured or assured. Every insured party must possess insurable interest in the subject-
matter insured.

PROPOSAL; It’s the application made by the assured to secure insurance policy from the
insurer. Proposal has to be made on a prescribed form supplied by the insurance company.

POLICY; Insurance policy is a contract between insurer and insured. It contains all terms and
conditions of the contract as agreed by both parties. It’s a stamped and sealed document issued
by the insurance company.

PREMIUM: It is the amount of installments payable by the insured to the insurance company in
consideration for the company’s assurance to indemnify him against a specific loss.

CLAIM; It is a demand made by the insured on the insurance company to compensate him
against the loss or damage suffered by him in the event of materializing of the risk for which
insurance cover was obtained.

SURRENDER VALUE; This is the value which an insurance company assesses and is prepared
to Pay to the assured who desires to surrender his policy by giving up his rights the policy.
Sometimes the policy holder finds it impossible to continue pay premiums due to his poor
economic conditions or some other unavoidable circumstances. A policy can be surrendered only
after paying premiums for at least three years.

PAID UP VALUE; A policy holder who wishes to discontinue his policy and stops payments of
further premiums may get the policy converted into a paid up value. In such case, the policy
holder is entitled to receive the paid up value of the policy. The amount is payable only on
maturity or death of the policy holder whichever is earlier.
ASSIGNMENT OF POLICY; Assignment of policy means transfer of property in the policy to
the third party It is possible to assign a policy without assigning the rights to it. Assignment of
policy is governed by the following rules;
(a) Assignment must be made in writing.
(b) The notice of assignment must be given to the insurer. It is essential to observe these rules to
make this assignee’s title effective against insurance company otherwise if the company makes
any payment to the assignor, without the assignees
Knowledge, the company would stand protective. The assignment of the policy carries with it the
right to all profits, Bonus etc.

NOMINATION OF POLICY; When a policy holder specifies the name of the person in the
policy with a view to enabling him to get the amount of the policy in case of his death, it’s called
nomination. The person who is so entitled to get the amount of the policy is called Nominee. If
the policy matures within the life time of assured, the amount is payable to the assured himself or
his nominee as per his own desire.

ENDOWMENT POLICY: under the Endowment policy the assured is bound to pay an annual
premium, which is determined on the insured amount is payable by the Insurer at the end of a
specified number of years or upon the death of the Insured, whichever is earlier.

LAPSED POLICY: A policy that has been terminated due to nonpayment of premium dues and
hence is no longer in force.

MATURITY: this is the date upon which the face amount of a life insurance policy is paid to the
policy holder that is, if the policy hasn’t been previously invoked to cover contingencies like
death etc.

REINSTATEMENT: a lapsed policy can be reinstated to in-force status after expiration of the
grace period which the Insured enjoys to pay premiums. The Insurer has the privilege to deny
reinstatement depending on the insurability of the Insured. Moreover this will also necessitate the
Insured to pay up the total amount of the past premium, due.
UNDERWRITING: UW is the process of selecting and evaluating the risks associated with a
policy and determining the amount and terms on which the Insurer will accept this risk.

BIBILOGRAPHY

 Web Surfing:

• www.metlife.com
 • www.metlifeindia.org

• www.insuranceindia.com

• www.businessstandard.com/india/news/metlifestrengthens-its-customer-service-
platform/328282/

 Books

• IC-33 Life Insurance by S.Balachandran,

• D.R. Cooper P.S. Schindler, Business Research Methods-9th edition, Tata McGraw-Hill
companies

• IRDA journal

Raising Payments in Swift

Receiving Applications

Accepting or Rejecting the Application

Doing a Quality Check

Data Entry in Swift

Raising Payments in Swift

Scanning through Do cue Capture

Generating BDC

Banking Payment Instrument

Dispatching Physical Files for Archival

Receiving Applicant

Doing a Quality Check

All documents should be scanned in 200 DPI X and Y dimensions and paper size should be A4

Deposit the instruments and cash as per the process