HSBC Bank Malaysia hopes to increase the company’s insurance penetration rate by 60% in its customer base in two years. It has more than a million customers, 30% of whom has at least one insurance product offered by the bank, according to its General Manager of Personal Financial Services, Mr U Chen Hock.
“We will focus on cross-selling, especially with our existing customer base,” he said during a media briefing on the Malaysian insurance industry.
The bank will work with its takaful arm, HSBC Amanah Takaful (Malaysia), to develop products. HSBC Amanah will be the main provider of the products and it will focus on areas which are largely untapped.
At present, HSBC Bank offers about 20 products, of which three are from HSBC Amanah and they range from general to life insurance products. The bank also sells third-party products from Manulife Insurance, American International Assurance and Mitsu Sumitomo Insurance.
Mr U says that bancassurance accounts for almost half of the new business written in the life insurance sector in Malaysia. Commenting on market trends, he adds that there is more demand for investment-linked policies due to the good returns.
Separately, HSBC Amanah’s CEO, Mr Keith Driver, notes that the takaful market in Malaysia offers a lot of potential due to its 26.7-million population, with an average age of 24.5. “The challenge is to educate the population on insurance,” he said.
He says bancatakaful accounts for 20.4% of the sales of the Islamic insurance industry, direct marketing (44.3%), agents (19.3%), brokers (14.2%) and others (1.8%).
He adds that HSBC Amanah will sell general takaful products to realise income quickly, while life and investments will be a long-term focus.