Several banks are moving to establish insurance companies to expand their financial ecosystems and gain a stronger foothold in the bancassurance market. The banks include Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), VPBank and Techcombank.
Sun Life has appointed Mr Anshuman Das as chief bancassurance officer, Asia. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading the company's bancassurance strategy, working closely with the senior leadership team across Asia to drive a world class distribution function founded on excellence, quality and innovation.
AI adoption is well underway in Asian bancassurance, but the transition to agentic AI, where AI actively performs tasks autonomously, is just beginning, according to BCG principal Joshua Tan.
India's central bank and the banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it does not envisage any ban or restrictions on bancassurance. According to a report in the financial daily livemint the RBI governor Mr Sanjay Malhotra has said the regulatory safeguards in this regard should, however, be strengthened.
RHB Banking Group (RHB) entered into bancassurance and bancatakaful partnerships with Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia and its takaful partners - Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia.
Prudential Life Assurance Kenya and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Kenya have announced the official launch of their strategic partnership that kicks off with the rollout of bancassurance products, supporting affluent and ultra-wealthy clients in their risk management, as well as financial, wealth protection and legacy planning.
In recent months, insurance subsidiaries of major Chinese banks have stepped up joint initiatives with their parent banks, seeking to capitalise on ecosystem synergies and develop new business models targeting high-net-worth individuals.
These are the highlights for events and updates across the insurance industry this week.
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Thailand Branch (MSITB) and MSIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited (MSIG Thailand) have signed a memorandum of understanding with Bank of China (Thai) Public Company Limited (BOC Thai) and China Pacific Insurance (CPIC), to form a strategic bancassurance alliance in Thailand.
2024 marked the first full operational year since the implementation of the 'approval-compliance' policy in bancassurance channels. Amid additional pressures such as declining interest rates, new premium volumes in bancassurance saw a sharp contraction. Industry data shows that full-year new bancassurance premiums totalled approximately CNY730bn ($102.2bn), down 21% year-on-year.