First Lady CEO in Insurance

Today's Sin Chew Daily runs a special feature article on the 1st lady CEO in insurance industry in Malaysia - Dr Nirmala Menon of ING Insurance Bhd.

Dr Nirmala joined the industry in 1991, after serving as a physician in a government hospital for 9 years. She joined the insurance industry to strike a better balance between work and family. She started her insurance career with the then Aetna (now ING) in the underwriting department.

Other points covered in the special feature article are:

• Insurance industry needs more employees with medical background, especially with the increasing importance of critical illness products.



• Male and female managers have their strengths and weaknesses. Gender itself does not determine whether a person is a good or bad manager.



• A strong agency distribution is still key to an insurance company. With increased competition, alternative channels such as bancassurance would need to be developed.



• Agents must continue to enhance their skills and knowledge through CPD.



• ING is interested in takaful business and will use Malaysia as a base to move to other countries.



• ING is not interested in general insurance as the market is already very crowded.



• The insurance penetration rate in Malaysia is highest for Chinese, followed by Malay and then Indian. However, the importance and potential of the Chinese market cannot be ignored.



• EPF saving is not sufficient for retirement. With the increase in life expectancy and the number of middle income earners, the importance of wealth management for this sector cannot be understated.