Partnering with co-operative banks as a focused strategy has been adopted by BSLI since last year. There were tie-ups with 5 co-operative banks in the year 2005-06 and in the fiscal 2006-07, BSLI has partnered with 6 co-operative banks across the country taking the total number of co-operative bank partnerships to 11 as of date.

Speaking about the partnerships Mr. Vikram Mehmi, CEO, BSLI says,"Our strategy since inception has been that of multi channel distribution and the Bancassurance model has played a major part in our growth. We are now looking at replicating our extremely robust and successful bancassurance model with key Cooperative banks in the country, which offers tremendous opportunities for life insurance sales growth. Co-operative banks provide an opportunity to create relationship with special community groups.”

In December 2006, BSLI entered into partnerships with 6 co-operative banks. The banks are:

Birla Sun Life Insurance has entered into a referral arrangement in Jan’2007 with Gondal Nagrik Sahakari Bank, an Urban Co-operative Bank, based in Gondal in Rajkot District of Gujarat. The Bank is one of the oldest co-operative banks in Gujarat with a 51 year track record of offering excellent banking services to it’s customers. The bank has 5 branches across Rajkot district and services about 100000 customers across these branches.

All the above banks have a strong presence in their respective regions of operation and will enable Birla Sun Life Insurance reach out to about 325,000 bank customers spread across 34 branches of all the above banks put together.

With the current tie-up, the Alternate Channel distribution model of BSLI that handles Corporate Agency, Broking and Co-operative Banks will have access to a large customer base of co-operative bank customers.

In the year 2005-06, BSLI had tied-up with 5 co-operative banks, namely - Indian Mercantile Co-operative Bank, Nagaland State Co-operative Bank, Jamshedpur Urban Co-operative Bank, Krishna Mercantile Co-operative Bank and Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank.

BSLI will initially sell simple products its suite and move up the value chain with increasing awareness levels amongst customers and the staff of the banks. The tie-ups are expected to increase BSLI's reach across the various regions in India

The Aditya Birla Group has a turnover close to Rs. 38000 crores (as on March 31st, 2006) and is one of the largest business houses in India. It enjoys a leadership position in all the sectors in which it operates. With over 75 business units, spanning the South East Asian belt, Africa, Canada and the UK among others, it is reckoned as India's first multinational corporation.  The group is anchored by 72,000 employees and has 7 lakh shareholders, with a market capitalization of Rs. 53,400 crores.

Additional information is available at www.adityabirla.com

Sun Life Financial Inc. is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Tracing its roots back to 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda.  As of March 31st , 2006, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of USD 343 billion. Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol "SLF".

Additional information can be found at www.sunlife.com

For further information kindly contact:
Ms. Anjana Grewal,
Sr. Vice President - Marketing & Communication,
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited, Ph: 022-6678 3333.
E-mail: anjana@birlasunlife.com