India-based ING Vysya Life Insurance is planning to expand its distribution network from its existing 300 branches in 138 locations and 43,000 individual agents, the Indo-Asian News Service has said, quoting a company official.

T Uthappa, director of sales for ING Vysya is reported as saying: Our idea is to add 200 more branches and 53,000 agents by the end of next calendar year. The company will then be present in 180 locations.

The company has earned a premium of around $156 million and has plans to add $38 million to its current equity base of $200 million by March 2008.

Currently, 45% of the company’s full-time agents are working full-time. As part of the expansion the company aims to increase the headcount from the current 1,000 to 7,000. Mr Uthappa said: The performance of full-timers is satisfactory. We do not look at the average premium per policy brought in by an agent. Instead we ask our agents to bring at least three policies per month.