Qualitative Research on Issues and Trends in the Bancassurance Model in India: An Interview Report Jyoti Bansal*, Kanwal Anil** * Marketing Executive, FICCI Research & Analysis Centre, New Delhi, India. Email: jyotibansal1028@gmail.com ** Associate Professor, School of Business Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship, Ambedkar University Delhi, Delhi, India. Email: kanwal@aud.ac.in Abstract The article attempts to understand the issues and challenges faced by the banking sector in implementing the bancassurance business model by using interview- based methodology. The study includes the challenges faced by supply side, that is, the banks or insurance’s perspective. There have been prior researches on the issues and challenges existed but either from the customer’s point of view or in general. The major issues and challenges that banks face include lack of awareness of customer, long-term vision, trust-high competition, different objective of partners, marketing- distribution channels, capital allocation, training and knowledge of staff, and complication of multiple tie-ups. On the other hand, trends in bancassurance include sales through multiple channels, telemarketing as the direct channel, bundling, digitalization, and multi tabs. Keywords: Bancassurance, Bancassurance Trends, Bancassurance Challenges, Banking, Insurance Issues, Qualitative Research Introducton Bancassurance in India Bancasurance was introduced in India in early 2000 when government issued a notifcation specifying ‘Insurance’ as a permissible form of business for banks under section 6 (1) (o) of Indian Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Bancassurance is supported in India because it helps the banking industry to widen its area of working which may reach to every corner of the nation. It helps development and enhancement of channels through which insurance products can be made available to every person of India. It facilitate competition among private insurance companies and thus best possible and effective products availability to Indians. Bancassurance is related to service industry and intellectual knowledge is consider as capital especially in such an industry with related to fnance, insurance, and banking. Therefore, experience and suggestion of experts can a play vital role in understanding and analyzing the current study. It has been researched and found by Schultzea and Avitalb (2010) that information systems’ (IS) publications that use interviews for data generation provide very little insight into the research process and very few rely on a carefully chosen and well-articulated interviewing method. There is a wide variety of interviewing approaches available to qualitative researchers but IS discipline is lagging behind and can easily enhance its methodological sophistication. Interview-based research papers provide insight into people’s experiential life; along with that researcher can provide various epistemological stances that can be taken while interviewing; there are three types of interview-based research: (1) appreciative, (2) laddering, and (3) photo- diary interviewing. These methods help generate situated accounts of an interviewee’s own lived experience. These methods ultimately enhance the richness of data. Despite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot International Journal of Banking, Risk and Insurance 6 (2) 2018, 67-78 http://publishingindia.com/ijbri/