mumbai star union daiichi has emerged one of the most costefficient new insurance companies by maintaining an expense ratio at 15 of premium income after the first full year of operations the management has indicated that the company would not seek capital from its parents for the next two years and would target breakeven in four to five years we were the 22nd life insurance company to get a licence from the insurance regulator but after our first year of operations we were 14th among private life insurance companies said star union md k sahay we have managed our operations at a very low cost because we have been selling our products exclusively through the bancassurance channel he added the company which is a threeway joint venture between bank of india union bank and daiichi of japan has recorded new business premium of rs 525 crore in fy10 this was achieved through sales of 108 lakh policies most of which were unitlinked insurance plans star union is the fifth life insurer to be floated by a public sector bank other banksponsored life insurance companies include state bank of india idbi fortis canara hsbc and india first life insurance except sbi all others are threeway partnerships the private life insurers total operational expenses in the first year were around rs 78 crore which is the lowest among new companies considering the size of new business star union has also kept a check on commissions with total commissions paid out being less than rs 50 crore however the company faces a major challenge in growing business as the new irda regulation has made pension plans unattractive for buyers pension plans account for half the sales of star union under the new regulations selling pension plans will be a challenge but we still hope to grow our new business by 100 in the coming year said mr sahay