From days to minutes: Shanta Life rewrites insurance experience thru digitalisation
According to company data, total revenue in the second quarter of 2026 increased by 1,012% year-on-year. Monthly revenue also grew by approximately 167% from June to July.
Highlights:
- Shanta Life is shifting Bangladesh's insurance model toward digital-first operations.
- 21% of new policies were digitally issued in July.
- Bancassurance policy issuance fell from days to approximately 10 minutes.
- Nearly all claims are now submitted digitally, reducing paperwork.
- AI is being introduced for underwriting, customer service, and KYC.
- Shanta Life aims for end-to-end digital policies within five years.
Shanta Life Insurance is seeking to reshape Bangladesh's agent-led, paper-based life insurance model by making digitalisation central to policy issuance, underwriting, customer service and claims settlement.
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The insurer said 21% of its total new policies were issued through digital channels in July, while automation has significantly reduced policy issuance time through its bancassurance channel from five to six working days to around 10 minutes.
Shanta Life is also deploying technology to digitise claims processing, customer service and underwriting as it moves towards a digital-first insurance model.
Mohammad Maksud Hossain, chief information and technology officer of the insurer, said the company had designed its backend operations to be digital from the outset.
"Digital transformation is not simply about replacing paper with software, it is about reimagining the entire insurance experience," he said.
Revenue surges alongside digitalisation
According to company data, total revenue in the second quarter of 2026 increased by 1,012% year-on-year. Monthly revenue also grew by approximately 167% from June to July.
Including renewal premiums, total revenue during January-June 2026 rose by around 1,020% compared with the same period last year. However, the company has not disclosed specific data showing how much of this growth was directly attributable to digitalisation.
According to Bangladesh Bank's Financial Stability Report 2024 and the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority's (IDRA) annual report for 2024-25, total life and non-life insurance penetration stood at 0.36% of GDP in 2024, down from 0.38% a year earlier. Life insurance penetration was only 0.24%.
However, the sector expanded in 2025. According to a Financial Institutions Division publication, gross premium income of life and non-life insurers increased to Tk19,485 crore in 2025 from Tk18,355 crore in 2024.
The number of life insurance policies also rose from 70.89 lakh to 76.04 lakh. A 2025 study on digital transformation in the insurance business found that around 82% of surveyed insurance customers were interested in purchasing coverage through digital platforms.
For Shanta Life, this gap between customer demand and the sector's traditional service model presents an opportunity to expand digital distribution.
21% of new policies issued digitally
Maksud Hossain said policies sold through bKash, term insurance and bancassurance channels are processed digitally.
"Just in July, 21% of our total new policies were issued through digital channels, and this number is consistently increasing," he said.
The shift does not mean the company is eliminating agents from individual life insurance. Advisers continue to play an important role in helping customers understand products and choose suitable coverage.
Once customer information is captured digitally, however, underwriting, policy issuance and backend processes can be handled through digital systems.
The company aims to bring the majority of its new individual life policies into an end-to-end digital process over the next three to five years.
Policy issuance cut to 10 minutes
According to Maksud, a bancassurance policy that previously took five to six working days to issue can now be issued in around 10 minutes. Policies sold through bKash and digital term insurance can be issued almost instantly.
Digitalisation has also automated premium reminders, policy lapse notifications, renewal alerts and other routine customer communications.
Shanta Life and Eastern Bank launched bancassurance products and services in April 2026, allowing customers to access life insurance solutions through banking channels.
Maksud said almost 100% of claims are now submitted digitally, reducing customers' reliance on paper-based submissions. Customers can track their claims through the Shanta Life Customer Portal and mobile application.
The company says its average claim settlement time is five working days, while most claims are settled within 24 to 48 hours. Shanta Life has also reported a 99% claim settlement rate in recent corporate communications.
Shanta Life has introduced AI into customer service and is developing JET Underwriting, an AI-powered underwriting engine, said Maksud.
The system is designed to assess standard and straightforward risks using predefined underwriting parameters, allowing underwriters to focus on more complex cases.
The company is also exploring AI applications in know-your-customer (KYC) processes, document verification and other operational areas.
The next phase will focus on AI-powered underwriting, AI-enabled customer service and intelligent decision-support systems, said Maksud, elaborating on the insurer's five-year roadmap for digital transformation.
