Reliance Life Insurance has been awarded a high rating close to excellent in customer satisfaction for the third year in a row, according to Nielsen’s pan-India customer satisfaction survey. The survey was conducted between April and May this year.

Reliance Life Insurance has achieved yet another milestone of crossing Rs 15,000 crore mark in its Assets Under Management (AUM) and targets to double them to Rs 30,000 crore by 2011-12.

Reliance Life Insurance has emerged as the leading private sector insurer with regards to policies sold in the month of July. According to IRDA data, it sold 2,81,810 policies during the month.

Reliance Mutual Fund, announced the launch of new fund offer (NFO) for Small Cap Fund, which will invest in small cap companies. NFO opens on August 26 and closes on September 9th.

Sahara Mutual Fund declares the third dividend of Rs 4 each per unit under Sahara Banking & Financial Services Fund in the last 14 months.

A new set of direct tax rules has been approved by The Union Cabinet. The new rules proposes to raise income tax exemption limit from 1.6 lakh to 2 lakh, leaving more money in the hands of individuals, and a lower tax rate for companies.

ING Life India is out with a new child insurance product called “ING Aashirwad” that helps parents plan for their child’s future goal and thereafter protect its life without any additional cost.

Bharti Enterprises which promote life and non-life insurance ventures has been slapped with a fine of Rs 20 lakh by the insurance regulator IRDA for not informing changes in ownership pattern. Bharti Axa Life Insurance Company and Bharti Axa General Insurance Company have been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 10 lakh each.

MetLife India which is a joint venture between the US-based MetLife International Holdings, The Jammu and Kashmir Bank, M Pallonji and other private investors has been able to retain 84% of its customers in April-June quarter against the industry average of 70%.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) had come out with policy holder-friendly regulations sometime back and had asked life insurers to design and file new products confirming to the new ULIP regulations so as to sell them from Sept 1 onwards. IRDA is going through the new unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) filed for approval with a fine comb so that it is not pulled up later for laxity.