LIC has undertaken a pilot study to settle claims through bank accounts of customers in a move to bring about more transparency and speed up processing of beneficiaries' applications.

"We have just launched it in two centres. One in Vellore and another in Kottayam. We will provide the claims through bank accounts," LIC Zonal Manager D D Singh told PTI on the sidelines of a function here.

He said the issue of providing claims through bank accounts would eliminate the use of cheques. "Through this initiative, there will be no more cheques. We are collecting the NEFT (National Electronics Fund Transfer) numbers of customers and this will revolutionise the claims settlement," he said.

He said LIC has inked an agreement with 19 banks in the public and private sector for the service. Private sector City Union Bank has been appointed for the pilot study in Vellore, he said.

On LIC's latest child insurance plan, 'Jeevan Ankur', he said the southern zone sold 4,500 policies on a single day yesterday. "It was formally launched yesterday. On the day of the launch, 15,646 policies were sold. The southern zone topped the list, selling over 4,000 policies," he said.

On future plans, he said they proposed to sell about 51 lakh policies this fiscal, compared to 49 lakh last year. PTI VIJ APR ARV