Takaful News - Malaysian Re's retakaful window to enhance offering for MENA region
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Dec 2015
Malaysian Re’s licence to conduct general and family retakaful business will enhance its product offering in the MENA region, said CEO Zainudin Ishak in an interview with Asia Insurance Review.
Malaysian Re, a wholly owned subsidiary of MNRB Holdings, received approval from Bank Negara Malaysia in April to conduct retakaful business. It said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia that the business would be under the Islamic Financial Services Act and via the establishment of a retakaful division.
The move means that MNRB Retakaful, another subsidiary of MNRB Holdings, will become a division of Malaysian Re. MNRB Holdings has operations in Dubai through its 100% owned subsidiary, Malaysian Re (Dubai).
Mr Zainudin said: “Currently, our product offering in MENA is limited to conventional products as Malaysian Re (Dubai) is not in the position to underwrite takaful business. With this retakaful window, Malaysian Re will be able to offer both conventional and takaful products, and that should enhance its market segmentation.
“Moreover, the retakaful subsidiary was previously rated lower than Malaysian Re, which made it difficult to stay competitive. On the other hand, this retakaful window can leverage on Malaysian Re’s favourable financial strength ratings, meaning it can be on a level playing field with other competitive retakaful operators.”
Malaysian Re is rated ‘A’ and ‘A-’ by Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best, respectively. MNRB Retakaful was rated ‘BBB+’ by Fitch before the rating was withdrawn in June after it chose to stop participating in the rating process.