Unified Payment Interface (UPI), launched on 11 April 2016, is an online payments system launched in India to allows multiple bank accounts belonging to any participating bank to be controlled via a single mobile app having number of banking features, facilitating seamless and secure fund transfer and merchant payments at a single platform.

Peer to Peer fund request and transfer has been introduced with the UPI using mobile app first time.

Now an upgraded version UPI 2.0 is launched in Mumbai by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) along with some banks and Reserve Bank of India members. RBI governor Urjit Patel, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar and Nandan Nilekani, the non-executive chairman of Infosys who is also the innovation advisor at NPCI launched UPI 2.0.

NPCI controls all retail payments in the country, manages the UPI platform that facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without requiring details of the beneficiary’s bank account.

Existing Features of UPI

1. Instant money transfer facilitated 24×7 via any mobile device
2. Single aap can be used to access multiple bank accounts
3. Security of “Single Click 2 Factor Authentication”, which combines strong security and smooth access of a payment via a single click
4. Virtual address eliminating the need of providing card number, IFSC, account numbers etc. providing incremental security
5. The app lets one to share bill with friends
6. Single Application Merchant Payment and easier In-App Payments
7. Registering complaints directly via the Mobile App

New features of UPI 2.0

1. Linking of overdraft account: In new version, customers can link their overdraft account to UPI along with their savings and current account.
2. One-time mandate: Customers can pre-authorize a transaction and pay at a later date.
3. Invoice in the inbox: According to NPCI, this feature is designed for customers to check the invoice sent by merchant prior to making payment. It will help customers to view and verify the credentials and check whether it has come from the right merchant or not. Customers can pay after verifying the amount and other important details mentioned in the invoice.
4. Signed intent and QR: This feature is designed for customers to check the authenticity of merchants while scanning QR or quick response code. It notifies the user with information to ascertain whether the merchant is a verified UPI merchant or not. This provides an additional security. Customers will be informed in case the receiver is not secured by way of notifications, said NPCI.

As per NPCI, UPI 2.0 member banks as on date are State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, RBL Bank, YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank and HSBC.

As per Mint, BHIM UPI recorded transactions worth INR 45,845 crore and 235 million in terms of value and volume in the month of July 2018.

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SBI Life Insurance is a combined undertaking of BNP Paribas Cardiff and State Bank of India. It was founded in the year 2001 and has its headquarters in Mumbai. SBI holds 74% share of the capital sum of SBI Life whereas BNP Paribas Cardiff holds 26% of the capital sum.

SBI life provides policies under ULIP and traditional plans across all sections and is one of the key players in the insurance domain.

SBI Life Insurance Features

• It is backed by State Bank of India which is one of the strongest banks in India.
• It was awarded the “Life Insurance Company of the Year” in 2016
• Life cover of 1 crore offered at as low premium as Rs. 18*/day.
• 69% claim settlement ratio in the year 2016 – 2017
• In 2016-2017, 99.98% grievances were resolved.
• Has access to more than 100 million accounts across India.
• It has the most productive team with respect to insurance agents and is associated with more than 80000 door-to-door advisors.
• It has wide range of insurance products and financial services.
• Most of the services can be availed online like checking SBI Life Insurance Policy status, buying a new policy, paying the premium etc.

SBI Life Insurance Policy Status

Earlier the checking of SBI Life Insurance Policy status or SBI Life Policy Status was a tedious process. Customers had to visit the SBI Life branch office or an authorized agent and request for the current SBI Life Insurance Policy status.

With the advancement of technology SBI Life launched an e-portal smartcare[dot]sbilife[dot]co[dot]in/SmartCare/onbording[dot]html to ease the process of checking SBI Life Insurance Policy status and Latest Fund Value Online. In fact the e-portal not only provides the facility of checking the SBI Life Insurance policy status but also other features like checking fund value, paying the premium amount, getting premium paid certificate, buying policy online and many more. In short the entire process involving life insurance policies can be done online. This is truly a boon for the customer.

Process to See the SBI Life Insurance Policy Status Online

• Account Set Up/Registration Process

 The process to see SBI Life Insurance policy status online or SBI Life Policy Status and Latest Fund Value Online is very simple. Customers need to do a one time registration process at mypolicy[dot]sbilife[dot]co[dot]in. The process is very simple as the customer has to just key in their Policy Number, Email-ID, Customer ID, and Date of Birth as revealed in the policy document. Once the appropriate details are entered, an email with password reset link will be sent to the customer’s email account. Once the customer clicks on the password reset link, he/she will be automatically re-directed to password reset screen where he/she can set a new password. Once the password is reset, the registration process is complete. Once the account registration is complete, one can add all his/her existing SBI life policies to the account.

• To Check the SBI Life Insurance Policy Status Online

1. Login to e-portal of SBI Life with your login name and password

2. Click on “View Policy”

3. Select the correct policy number

4. The current SBI Life Insurance policy status like renewal date, premium amount, maturity etc will be listed.

• SBI Life Insurance Policy Status SMS Alert

SBI Life also provides the facility to receive policy update on SMS. The SBI Life Insurance policy status can be obtained by

Sending below SMS to 56161 or 9250001848

POLSTATUS<<space>>(Policy Number)

This above activation SMS may be chargeable. Once the customer sends the above SMS, the SBI Life Insurance policy status will be received as SMS in a few minutes of time.

Check Modern Fund Value of SBI Life Policy Online

Most of the policy holders are always eager to find out their fund value. The eagerness is so high that customers end up sharing private information such as policy number or mobile number to complete strangers online who assure to inform about the latest fund value. SBI life has made this process very simple for customers so that they can independently find out their policy’s fund value. In fact the process is exactly similar to the process of checking SBI Life Insurance policy status or SBI Life Policy Status and Latest Fund Value Online.

• Check the Latest Fund Value Online

Firstly the account set up and registration should be complete as described above in the “Process to check SBI Life Insurance policy status online” section. If the registration is already complete, user can login in to the e-portal. Go to “View Policy” and select the correct policy number. Now proceed to see the “Policy Status” and click on “Fund Value” tab. The latest update of the fund value is available.

• Check Fund Value Through SMS Alert

The latest update on investment value can be obtained as a SMS alert too. To activate send below SMS to 56161 or 9250001848 from the registered mobile number:

• Check Fund Value Through Missed Call

One can also receive the latest update of fund value by giving a missed call on 022-27599901

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Market is full of insurance players and its tough to choose the best term plan so let us evaluate the benefits of SBI term plan in India.

Anything can happen from the time we are born to the moment we die. Unfortunate situations are not uncommon in the world. This is the core-reason why people turn to insurance to help keep them secure in case something terrible were to happen; especially to the breadwinner of a family.

One of the policies that people look forward to being SBI term insurance plans.

• Also called Life Insurance, these particular investments are designed to provide for your family in case you pass away from unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances.
• Premium rates vary between all major term insurers because the companies are intentionally not competing with one another where this package is concerned.
• While they are all similar to each other, premiums vary depending on your age and how much risk the insurer is willing to take with you.

Here are some of the salient points to keep in mind when you go into the policy market and try to choose best SBI Term Plan in India.

Key Points To Know When Buying SBI Life Term Insurance or Choose Best SBI Term Plan in India

1. Low Premiums of SBI Life Term Insurance Plans

This is one of the first factors that interested customers will be on the lookout for while shopping for SBI term insurance. However, it is NOT as important as you think.

• The other two points on our list highlight your priority-points, after which you can readily sort through premium options.
• While this may come as a surprise to some people, it is nevertheless an important piece of advice, which is not designed to make you pay any premium under the sun, but to help you get your priorities straight.

This mode of approach will definitely serve you in the long run, which is essentially what term insurance is all about.

2. SBI Company Repute

Take the time to do your homework and learn about a company’s financial health and societal standing.

• Do NOT base your judgment on television advertisements or because a famous celebrity endorsed this or that insurer.
• If you have prior experience with, say, SBI term insurance deals, then you will know which one is best suited to you. Otherwise, it is best to do your own research, much like you are now while reading this.
• The State Bank of India is being covered in this article because it has repute and good standing, with tens of millions of customers. Regardless of that, it is advisable that you double-check everything about your preferred SBI life term insurance policy before stamping paid to the investment.

3. Claim Settlement Ratio of SBI Term Plan in India

This is the primary point you need to put under the microscope. Remember, in case something were to happen to you, your family will receive a sum assured and gain financial security from term insurance plans. This is the foundation of all SBI term plans; as well as that from other insurers.

• There is every chance that your claim will be rejected by the insurer. This can happen for several valid reasons. You can learn more about that by simply searching under the broad topic of ‘claim settlement ratios’.
• Do not fully trust agents/agencies who promise to take out a term plan on your behalf. Nobody is out there to help you make money, they are in it for themselves; pardon the harsh revelation.
• Agents aim to pocket their commission and be on their way. They will certainly help get you a competent SBI term insurance policy but will hasten while filling out forms. Any hurried mistakes made on their part can potentially injure your financial capabilities.
• Do not be shy to reveal other insurance plans that you are probably currently paying premiums for. They can be with other insurers, doesn’t matter, mention them. Even if it is endowments or ULIPs, mention them.
• Whatever personal or medical setbacks might be troubling you – alcoholism, drug use, general medical conditions – make note of them in your application form. You do not want omissions coming back to haunt you later.

By following these (and other) points, you increase your chances of having a claim accepted. Let’s look at some of the leading term plans from SBI available today.

Best SBI Term Insurance Plans 2017-2018

• SBI Life Smart Power – This non-participating unit-linked insurance plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-45. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 10-30 years or 15-30 years.
• SBI Life Smart Humsafar – This joint life insurance traditional plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-46. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 10-30 years.
• SBI Life eShield – This online SBI term plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-60 or 18-65. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 5-30 or 10-30 years.
• SBI Life Saral Sanchay CSC – This participating traditional endowment plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-55 or 18-60. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years, and the policy term is set at 10 or 15 years.
• SBI Life Smart Money Planner – This traditional participating money-back endowment plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-50, 18-55, or 18-60. Its maximum maturity age is 75 years, and the policy term is set at 15, 20, or 25 years.

Best SBI Term Insurance Plans 2018-2019

• SBI Life eShield – This is an individual, non-linked, non-participating pure online term plan of SBI which is open to individuals in the age range of 18-60 or 18-65. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 5-30 or 10-30 years. This eases the way to choose best SBI Term Plan in India.
• SBI Life Smart Money Planner – This traditional (non linked) participating money-back endowment plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-50, 18-55, or 18-60. Its maximum maturity age is 75 years, and the policy term is set at 15, 20, or 25 years. If you need to choose best SBI Term Plan in India with money back, then you can go with this term plan.
• SBI Life Smart Humsafar – This joint (for married couples) life insurance traditional plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-46. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 10-30 years. If you are married and need to choose best SBI Term Plan in India, then you can go with this term plan.
• SBI Life Saral Sanchay CSC – This traditional, joint life, non-linked, participating endowment plan with benefits of savings and life insurance cover plan is open to individuals in the age range of 18-55 or 18-60. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years, and the policy term is set at 10 or 15 years. If you need to choose best SBI Term Plan in India with the benefits of savings as well as life insurance cover, then you can go with this term plan.
• SBI Life Smart Power – This is simple, low premium, non-participating unit-linked insurance plan which is open to individuals in the age range of 18-45. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 10-30 years or 15-30 years. If you need to choose best SBI Term Plan in India with low premium and unit linked, then you can go with this term plan.

Best SBI Term Insurance Plans 2019-2020

• SBI Life eShield – It’s an online term plan which can be opted by any individual of age from 18 to 65 years. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years and policy term is 5 to 30 years.
• SBI Life Smart Money Planner – It’s traditional participating money back endowment plan which can be opted by any individual of age from 18 to 60 years. Its maximum maturity age is 75 years and policy term is 15/20/25 years.
• SBI Life Smart Humsafar –It’s traditional joint life insurance plan which can be opted by any individual of age from 18 to 46 years. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years and policy term is 10 to 30 years.
• SBI Life Saral Sanchay CSC – This traditional, joint life, non-linked, participating endowment plan which can be opted by any individual of age from 18 to 60 years. Its maximum maturity age is 70 years and policy term is 10/15 years.
• SBI Life Smart Power – This is simple, low premium, non-participating unit-linked insurance plan which is open to individuals in the age range of 18-45. Its maximum maturity age is 65 years, and the policy term is anywhere from 10-30 years or 15-30 years.

Conclusion

You have options! You merely need to sit down and explore them in detail. The concept of SBI term insurance is to grant you long-term peace of mind and is easy to choose best SBI Term Plan in India based on above. You can go on paying premiums and work until retirement knowing that your family is safe under these schemes, in the occurrence of your death or permanent disability. As you can imagine, this is no laughing matter. If you are looking for short-term options, those are also available from SBI.

An important point that you must follow, go for medical examinations rather than Tele-medical examination in which Life Insurance companies question about your health details in the phone and during claim settlements, in future, they take this report as a base to reject your claim.

This will really clear the doubts arising in your mind about future claim settlements and in future, insurance companies can’t find any reasons to reject the claim on health ground which is not based on Tele-medical examinations.

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SBI constitutes to be one of the largest financial institutions in the country. In the third quarter of the year 2017-18, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd witnessed a substantial growth of around 41.9% in the new business premium. However, now that the growth engine is in full swing, SBI now needs to focus on the quality part. Scroll down to know more…

1. Propellants of the Growth Engine

SBI is also the largest insurance provider in India. As reported by SBI, this substantial growth in the premiums has been largely fostered by the retail individual business. Not just fresh premiums but renewal premiums have also contributed to the reported growth.

2. Growth in Assets under Management

Owing to the growth in premiums, SBI Life has also undergone an impressive growth in assets under management. The growth in assets under management was around 17.6% in 2016-17 until the end of nine months in December. However, in this financial year, by the end of December, the growth was reported to be 23%.

3. New Business Acquisitions

New business acquisitions refer to an increment in costs. Although marginal, SBI has shown an increment in the percentage corresponding to the new business premiums.  Earlier, the percentage was 12.3%, which has now gone up to 12.6%.

4. Persistence Ratios

Improvement in persistence ratios has been another vital aspect. It indicates that SBI Life continues to leverage on the incomparable reach of its parent distribution network. It also indicates that SBI Life products are not just sold in the market but also are held on to.  However, this is quite natural given that the sale of insurance products contributes to more than 65% of the entity’s business.

5. Featuring on the Stock Exchanges

Lately, insurance companies have started to feature on the stock exchange. According to investors, this calls for potential growth, and therefore investors look at these events in a positive manner. In the past five years, SBI life’s market share has grown from 13% to around 20%.  No wonder, analysts have given SBI Life Stock the ‘buy’ rating. Further, December figures indicate that the Profitability of SBI Life has increased.

6. Future Prospects of SBI Life

The current picture appears to be positive and promising. Similarly, future prospects also appear to be positive and secure. An improvement in the persistence ratios has been indicating the safety of the future prospects. Now, if you take a look at SBI Life’s persistence ratios, there have been a lot of changes. For instance, persistence ratio for the thirteenth month was at 79.81%. However, it increased to around 81.51% in the last year. Similarly, the persistence ratio, which was around 67.48%, increased to around 68.81% in the 37^th month.

But surprisingly, the ratio for the 61^st month considerably fell down to 59.48% from 69.59%.

7. Traditional Policy Options Still Continue to Lead the Race

Strong equity markets have in turn strengthened the sales of market-associated products for most of the insurance companies, including SBI. Despite this, it is the traditional policy options, especially the protection plans that earn long-term profits. It is not surprising that the traditional policy options offered by SBI still lead the product portfolio. This fact is supported by the 18% growth exhibited by SBI.

8. SBI Life Focusing on Quality

For any business entity, small or large, local or global, what matters the most is quality! With the growth patterns that have appeared last year, SBI appears to be on a growth spree. However, now that the growth wagon is running steadily, SBI should now focus on the quality of business, and that is the protection plans. As mentioned earlier, protection plans have been traditional, tried and tested profit tools for SBI. Hence, it is necessary for them to further strengthen this area quantitatively as well as qualitatively.

No doubt, SBI has struck the right chords when it comes to business profitability. SBI has shown substantial growth in almost all the areas. However, what lies ahead are more challenges, and therefore, it is imperative for the organization to concentrate on quality by focusing on its protection plans.

Refer our section to read about other Life Insurance Companies in India.

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Reliance’s Jio Infocomm has now forayed into the banking business with a payments bank service and named it as Jio Payment Bank (Jio Payments Bank Limited), a joint venture between Reliance Industries and State Bank of India with a 70:30 per cent partnership between the two.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is one of the 11 applicants for setting up payments bank in August 2015. Jio received the licence to start operation in March 2017, according to media reports.

The 11 unit as Payment Banks who got license, under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India, from RBI are-

• Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited
• Airtel M Commerce Services Limited
• Cholamandalam Distribution Services Limited
• Department of Posts
• Fino PayTech – Fino PayTech Limited
• National Securities Depository Limited
• Reliance Industries Limited (Jio Payment Bank)
• Shri Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi
• One97 Communications – PayTM Payment Bank
• Tech Mahindra Limited
• Vodafone m-Pesa Limited

What is a payments bank?

A payments bank is like any traditional bank but operating at a smaller scale. The only difference is that payments banks do not have any credit-providing service.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was the first one to start payments bank services in India in November 2016. After a huge success during demonetization, PayTM also launched its payments bank services in May 2017.

FINO Payments Banks Limited started in June 2017. The Aditya Birla group’s Idea Payments Bank was started from February 22 this year. And now, Reliance JIO.

How are they different from traditional banks?

The Airtel payments banks offers the highest interest rate of 7.25% unlike the other traditional systems. PayTM payments bank offers an interest rate of 4 per cent on a savings account and 7 per cent on fixed deposits. Payments banks can accept deposits of up to Rs. 100,000 per account from individuals and small businesses.

Apart from the interest rates, payments banks offer zero balance accounts or no minimum balance accounts without any extra charge.

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