Bandhan Group Eyeing Health Insurance Entry: Chairman Ghosh
Bandhan Group Chairman Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has indicated plans to explore opportunities in health insurance, potentially opening a new growth avenue for the group.
Bandhan Group is exploring an entry into the health insurance sector, signalling its interest in expanding its presence in India’s growing insurance market.
NEW DELHI – Bandhan Group plans to look at the health insurance market, but not until the businesses it has recently bought are running smoothly. Chairman Chandra Sekhar Ghosh said this in an interview, adding that the group is not yet ready to give a timeline for the move.
Ghosh described health insurance as a sizeable opportunity for the group. He said the plan to enter new businesses exists, but the timing is not right to say when health insurance will happen.
Bandhan Group: Integration of three businesses takes priority
Ghosh said Bandhan has taken over three companies in roughly the past three and a half years, besides its social-sector work. Bringing them together is the current priority, and he indicated that further expansion would follow only after that is done.
The purchases were routed through Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited (BFHL), a subsidiary of Bandhan Financial Services Limited (BFSL). BFHL is also the promoter of Bandhan Bank.
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The group’s asset management business came through a consortium of BFHL, GIC and ChrysCapital. The consortium agreed to buy IDFC Asset Management Company in 2022 in a deal reported at about ₹4,500 crore. Bandhan holds 60 per cent and controls operations, while the two investors hold 20 per cent each. The fund house was renamed Bandhan Mutual Fund in March 2023.
BFHL then bought out Aegon India Holding and Bennett, Coleman & Company from Aegon Life Insurance in a deal that closed in early 2024 after regulatory approvals. That marked the group’s first entry into life insurance. At the time of the agreement, the digital-focused insurer served around 300,000 customers.
Bandhan Group: Why a composite licence matters
Ghosh said a composite licence would make it simpler for the group to explore the sector. Under the Insurance Act, 1938, and IRDAI regulations, one insurer cannot currently offer life, general and health cover under a single entity.
A parliamentary panel recommended a composite licence in 2024, citing the need to raise insurance penetration. In December 2025, Parliament passed the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025. Legal analysts say it does not create composite licences directly. It sets up an enabling framework under which the Centre can notify a composite regime later.
Bandhan Group: Investment banking and wealth management also on the radar
Ghosh said the group is also looking at financial services segments where it has no presence today. He named investment banking and wealth management as areas with potential.
Bandhan Group: Corporate structure behind the group
BFSL was incorporated in 1995 and has been registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as an NBFC-MFI, engaged in microfinance since 2009. After the RBI licensed Bandhan Bank in June 2015, BFSL moved its entire microfinance assets and liabilities to the bank in August 2015, in line with the central bank’s 2013 licensing guidelines for new private sector banks. With no operations left, BFSL registered with the RBI as a systemically important core investment company (NBFC-CIC-ND-SI) from September 2017.
