INDIA’S GIC SEEKS APPROVAL TO OPERATE IN LOCAL BANKING SECTOR

India’s state-owned General Insurance Corp (GIC) has applied for permission to enter the local banking sector. The move comes as the corporation and its four operating subsidiaries face competition in their domestic insurance market following government approval of a package of liberalisation measures. GIC chairman Dipankar Sengupta said that the GIC had asked the government to amend the country’s Insurance Act to enable public-sector insurers to begin banking operations — a move that would relax an existing regulation that insurers can hold no more than a 2% interest in a bank. He added that the GIC and its four subsidiaries — Oriental Insurance, New India Assurance, United India Insurance and National Insurance — would be in a position to start banking business once the government's permission was granted.