Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, which has entered into a bancassurance tie-up with Mangalore-based Karnataka Bank, expects to earn a premium income of Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) during the current fiscal.

Addressing a press conference Sam Ghosh, chief executive officer, Bajaj Allianz, said, "Our partnership with Karnataka Bank would help us in providing need-based general insurance products to their extensive customer base in Karnataka, Maharastra and the north. We also plan to open an office at Mangalore."

Kamesh Goyal, who is to take over as the new CEO of Bajaj Allianz, said, "We expect to earn a premium income of Rs 440 crore (Rs 4.4 billion) during the current fiscal compared with Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) earned the previous year. We have thus far paid Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.1 billion) in claims."

Goyal said, "Bancassurance will account for 20 per cent of premium income earned in the next 2 years and 20 per cent of policies sold via banks. This is the 9th Bancassurance tie-up of Bajaj Allianz."

Ananthakrishna, chairman, Karnataka Bank Ltd, said, "We want to provide all kinds of financial services to our customer and to be considered as a financial supermarket. We have tied up with MetLife Insurance to sell life insurance and now a tied up with Bajaj Allianz to sell general insurance."

Ananthakrishna, said, "We will sell Bajaj Allianz products in 170 bank branches and later extend it to all our 364 branches present in 16 states."

He added that Karnataka Bank expects to reduce net non-performing assets to below five per cent, which is at about 7 per cent at present. It has served about 110 notices worth around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) under the Securitisation Bill.