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.

BNM Publishes Guidelines on Web

The wait is finally over. You can now download selected guidelines and circulars issued by BNM on its website.

This is definitely good news to the practitioners as they do not need to worry anymore on whether they are referring to the outdated documents.

It is hoped that in the near future, BNM will upload its complete set of guidelines and circulars on the web.

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=18&pg=55&ac=584

HLTMT Launched Gulf Opportunities Plan

Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful (HLTMT) launched a new 3-year capital protection investment-linked plan - HLTMT Gulf Opportunities Plan (GOP).

GOP's return is benchmarked against the performance of 3 assets classes: Middle Eastern Equities, Commodities and Foreign Currencies. The projected return is 10% p.a.

Minimum contribution for the plan is RM10,000, takaful coverage is 125% of initial contribution. Additional 0.1% units are allocated for contributions of RM50,000 and above.

The underlying structured product is provided by Citibank Islamic and GOP is distributed through Hong Leong Bank branches.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Wednesday/Nation/tikoif.xml/Article/

AmAssurance Starts Due Diligence

AmAssurance has started due diligence on acquiring MAA's general insurance business. The due D will take 10 days.

AmAssurance also expects to receive MoF's approval on splitting their life and general insurance license by next week.

Meanwhile, AmAssurance launched 3 non-motor insurance products: AmHospitality, AmEdu Package and AmSMI - F&B. This is to better balance its portfolio (RM550 mil gross premiums) which currently consists of 70% motor business.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/26/business/20746053&sec=business

IAG Plans to Dispose Stake in AmAssurance Life

IAG plans to dispose of its 30% stake in AmAssurance life business, the potential buyer is Friends Provident, although the latter is itself a potential takeover target of US private equity firm JC Flowers & Co.

It was reported that IAG would focus on general insurance business by increasing its stake in AmG Insurance from the current 30% to 49%. IAG bought the 30% stake in 2006 for RM193.2 mil.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Monday/OurPick/am24.xml/Article

AmAssurance Offered 10% of MAA Takaful

MAA Holdings Bhd (MAAH) has sweetened the deal to sell its general insurance business to AmAssurance by offering the latter 10% equity in MAA Takaful (MAAT). The deal is expected to go through in 2H 2008.

Currently MAAT is owned by MAAH (75%) and Solidarity (25%).

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Monday/Nation/maa2f.xml/Article/index_html

MAA Sells Life & General Units Separately

Business Times reported that MAA is to sell its general insurance business to AMAssurance and life insurance business to either Axa or Allianz.

AmAssurance is also interested in MAA's takaful business, as reported in this blog earlier.

The splitting of business will attract better price for MAA. Given that AMAssurance is also in the process of splitting its composite license, MAA does not expect any objection from BNM on its proposal to split the business and sell them separately. MAA has yet to seek BNM's approval on splitting and the process is expected to take 6 to 9 months.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Monday/Latest/maa1.xml/Article/

Changepoint for Great Eastern

Great Eastern has selected Compuware's Changepoint solution to provide an integrated view of its IT processes.

Great Eastern will roll out the solution across Malaysia and Singapore over the next 12 months.  The company has over 3 million policyholders in the 2 countries.

http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_d13d58dc-cb73c03a-158f1fa0-38754260

MoF Approves PacificMas Acquisition

Ministry of Finance (MoF) has given approval to OCSB to acquire up to 100% of PacificMas subject to the conditions:

• OCBC to resolve its holdings of 2 general insurance licenses, viz. Pacific Insurance and OAC within 18 months.
• In the event of a merger of Pacific Insurance and OAC, to reduce its holding to not more than 51% of the merged entity, within 18 months.

[LATEST NEWS] The OCSB's offer has become unconditional following acceptance of offer resulting in OCSB's holdings exceeding 50% on 25 March 2008.

http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/EDMS/edmsweb.nsf/all/48256E5D00102DF44825741300341644/$File/press%20release%20MOF%20approval%20210308[1].pdf

Captor for Takaful Ikhlas

Takaful Ikhlas has teamed up with Captor Retail Sdn Bhd to offer its contributors a vehicle security system at RM1,998.  The contributors will also get a free PA takaful of RM50,000 sum covered.

Takaful Ikhlas has 140,000 comprehensive motor takaful contributors.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=321018

Thailand Amends Insurance Act

Thailand's Insurance Amendment Act for both life and non-life came into force in February 2008.

Among changes are:

• The ceiling on foreign shareholding is increased from 25% to 49%, to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• The introduction of Risk Based Capital (RBC).
• Actuaries are to be licensed by Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC).

http://www.bangkokpost.com/200308_Business/20Mar2008_biz43.php

Takaful Refund Delayed

A Bandar Sri Damansara contributor wrote to the Malay Mail to express his disappointment over the delay in getting discount on his motor policy from Takaful Malaysia.

The contributor was promised 25% discount on the contract from 2nd year onwards.  However, on renewal, he was asked to pay the full contribution.

A company spokesman explained that the delay was due to the upgrading and re-engineering of their IT system and business processes.

http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Thursday/Hotline/20080320032836/Article/index_html

Ping An to Acquire Fortis

Ping An and Fortis signed an MoU for the former to acquire 50% of Fortis Investments. Fortis Investments will be renamed Fortis Ping An Investments. The deal is expected to complete within this year.

Ping An's chairman Ma Mingzhe said the deal would create benefits for Ping An as it could expand to the Asia Pacific region as well as emerging markets.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/20/afx4797082.html

AmAsssurance Interested in MAA Takaful

AmAssurance announced that in addition to talking to MAA in acquiring their general insurance business, they are also in talk with them to acquire their takaful business.

http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/EDMS/edmsweb.nsf/LsvAllByID/48256E5D00102DF448257410003B5A3F?OpenDocument

http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_c50b0167-cb73c03a-b9b61800-2b3bb39e

Takaful Ikhlas Targets RM520 mil Contributions

Takaful Ikhlas targets to collect RM520 mil contributions for financial year ending March 2009. This compares with RM480 mil target in FYE 2008.

Syed Moheeb Syed Kamarulzaman said the target would be achieved through new business strategy and strengthening of internal resources.

Takaful Ikhlas will establish new regional offices in Kuantan, Melaka, Putrajaya and Ipoh. Currently the company has 6 regional offices and 1,009 agents.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=321026

Hong Leong Bank Offers Cancer Protection Plan

Hong Leong Bank Berhad (HLB) launched Hong Leong Cancer Protection Plan (HLCPP) and expected 1,500 to 2,000 cases in the next 12 months.

HLCPP has 3 different packages and is underwritten by Hong Leong Assurance Berhad (HLA). The product is a non-par plan that provides cancer cover from early to advanced stage.

Hong Leong targets RM250 mil in both conventional and takaful insurance premiums this year.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/14/business/20640519&sec=business

AXA Affin to Launch Bancassurance with Affin Bank

The Star reported that AXA Affin would launch bancassurance with Affin Bank by August 2008. Affin Bank has 82 branches in Malaysia. AXA Affin is also in negotiation with other banks for bancassurance venture.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/14/business/20640782&sec=business

AXA Affin would also retain and strengthen its agency force.

AXA Affin currently has offices in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru and 4 new branches will be opened soon in Penang, Petaling Jaya, Sibu and Kuching.

Kenneth Wong Leaving BNM

Kenneth Wong, the Senior Actuary of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), today announced that he was leaving BNM, after 3 and 1/2 years with them. His last day with BNM is apparently 31 March 2008.

There is no news on where he is heading to.

A replacement apparently is being identified and will be announced soon. Meanwhile, Kenneth announced that business was as usual in BNM as they have a strong and capable actuarial team in the Bank.

HSBC Amanah Takaful CEO Leaving

According to a reliable source, HSBC Amanah Takaful CEO, Keith Driver, is leaving Malaysia. It is said that he is heading for India.

It is still unclear who will succeed Keith as the new CEO.

Keith came to Kuala Lumpur to start HSBC Amanah Takaful in early 2006, after a new takaful license was awarded to the joint consortium of HSBC Insurance, EPF and Jerneh.