Despite the impact that regulatory changes have had on the insurance sector, Shriram Life Insurance expects to conclude the 2025-26 fiscal year with a growth rate of approximately 20%, a senior company official stated on Friday.

Casparus Kromhout, the company's Managing Director and CEO, noted that the firm plans to forge additional partnerships (tie-ups) with banks in an effort to strengthen its distribution network.

"This year we will not be growing at the same pace because we are focusing much more on managing and stabilising all the impacts," Kromhout said, referring to regulatory changes such as special surrender value norms, along with the impact of GST and labour codes on the sector.

"But this year, we will still grow at around 20%,” he told the news agency PTI during an interview.

Over the past three years, the company has seen strong expansion.

"Effectively, in the last three years we have tripled the size of the business," he noted, adding that the company witnessed growth of 24% in FY23, 39% in FY24, and 45% in FY25.

Furthermore, he stated that while the company had previously prioritized building its own proprietary distribution channels, it is now prepared to establish partnerships with banks. "We have always been very clear that we will always be open to a bank tie-up. But in the earlier years of our growth we did not want to rely only on a bank relationship," he stated.

Instead, the company focused on building its own distribution networks; he explained that while creating these structures was " more difficult to build," they were crucial for the company's long-term stability.

"If you suddenly get a larger bank tie-up, you see massive growth in premium. But you also have the risk that you can lose that tie-up in a couple of years and then you see big volatility on the top line," he said.

Now that the company has built robust capabilities—and has specifically expanded its operations into rural and low-income segments—it is showing greater interest in forging such partnerships.

Nevertheless, he clarified that no formal discussions regarding this are currently underway.

Furthermore, the company is collaborating with its group entity, 'Shriram Wealth,' to develop new initiatives that integrate wealth management and insurance offerings. "Shriram Wealth is extremely important to us. We work very closely together with the team of Shriram Wealth and we are developing these solutions and combinations together with them as we move along," said Kromhout.

Speaking on the prospects of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), Kromhout stated that any decisions regarding such a move would be made by the shareholders, rather than by the management. "Our job here is to build the organisation organically and in the best way that we can. Shareholders will decide when they believe it is the right time to have an IPO," he said.