The Allahabad Bank launched in Chennai on August 14 the 'Al Ayushman Bima Yojana', a depositor-linked insurance scheme in partnership with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). 

The scheme is open to the bank's depositors aged between 18 and 54 who maintained savings bank or current accounts with any of its 1,900-odd branches in the country, K K Rai, Executive Director of the 138-year-old bank, headquartered at Kolkata, said while launching the new product at its Anna Nagar branch here. 

Under the scheme, both the present and prospective depositors could insure their lives for Rs one lakh by paying a premium, starting from Rs.172 to Rs.888 per annum, depending on the age of the depositor. 

In the case of unfortunate death, both natural and accidental, the family of the depositor would get an insurance cover of Rs.one lakh, Rai explained. 

Rai said on the very first day today, the bank was hopeful of enrolling nearly 25,000 new depositors. 

The Executive Director said the bank's board had approved the launch of centralised core banking solution. “The process had already started”. 

The bank had fixed a total business target of more than Rs.44,300 crore during the current financial year. As on June this year, the bank's total deposit stood at Rs.25,714 crore and advances at Rs.13,673 crore. 

The NPA would be brought down to less than five per cent by March next, from the existing 6.31 per cent in June this year. 

The main features of the scheme are:

1) Any depositor of any branch aged between 15 to 54 years can enter into the scheme anytime during the year.
2) The membership is open to all on the basis of a simple application-cum consent form.
3) No medical check up or proof of age is required. Easy enrollment via self declaration
4) Very low yearly premium, starting from just Rs.172/- per annum to Rs.888/- per annum depending on the age group of the depositor.
5) Income tax rebate u/s 88 will be available for the amount of premium paid.
6) Insurance cover Rs.1 lakh in case of unfortunate death of the depositor, both natural as well as accidental.
7) Hassle free payment of claim to the nominee in case of death of the depositor.

Allahabad Bank has always been eyeing low cost deposits, which constitutes more than 43% of the bank's total deposits. This incidentally is also amongst the highest low cost deposit ratio in the industry. With the launch of the above scheme, the bank expects to significantly increase the number of low cost savings bank deposit accounts within the first three months after the launch of the scheme and cover at least 50,000 existing deposit account holders of the bank under the new scheme during the same period. The bank hopes to rope in over 2 lakh account holders, both existing as well as new under the scheme during the current financial year.

The bank would strengthen its activities in the south, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Rai said.