Reinventing bancassurance through digital acceleration

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting disruptions have sharpened the digital needs of customers, and banks and insurers must provide seamless online integration and remote service offerings to build high-performing bancassurance channels, said speakers on the opening day yesterday of the Virtual Asia Conference on Bancassurance and Alternative Distribution Channels.

In her opening address, Ms Leigh Allen, RGA director of global surveys and distribution research, said that bancassurance continues to evolve as a dominant distribution channel for both life and non-life products, with the global market growing at a compounded annual rate of 6%.

Tied bancassurance is increasingly happening across Asia, Europe and Latin America where multinational insurers are forming partnerships with local and regional banks. “As digital channels mature, banks and insurers must refine their partnerships to pool expertise and technology to succeed,” she said. She also called for an omnichannel approach to address varying levels of customer product maturity and product complexity.

Digital bancassurance to drive growth

In his presentation on building the next-gen bancassurance, RAKBANK director of bancassurance & RAKselect, Mr Amol Shah, said that for this to happen the industry needs to create an ecosystem around customers.

“The reliance on branches and telesales will reduce and digital will play a significant role for bancassurance across the life and non-life segments,” he said.

Mr Ajit Rochlani, principal insurance - Asia Pacific Oliver Wyman said that since 2013, over 50 bancassurance deals have happened in the Asia Pacific region but digital bancassurance offers an opportunity for faster growth. “Opportunities for digital bancassurance are much higher today because of the change in digital behaviour of customers,” he said. He highlighted a number of critical elements in the sales value chain that need to be developed to generate value from digital bancassurance and these include digital sales integration, provisioning of digital content and tools for insurance presence and data-based lead generation. “Banks and insurers must rework this model in the present environment and tap the full potential in the market,” he said.

Achieving a win-win bancassurance partnership

A panel discussion, chaired by Mr Vikas Arora CEO, AMFORCE Advisors and Consultants, discussed the critical elements and strategies needed for successful bancassurance alliances. “Bancassurance is a significant contributor to the insurance value chain and insurers who have utilised this channel have done exceedingly well to stay ahead of their competitors,” said Mr Arora.

Mr Richard Vargo, managing director, bancassurance, at DBS Bank, highlighting the bank's partnerships with Manulife on the life side and Chubb on the general side, said that these tie-ups are driving business for the bank, and with digital transformation, the bank can now serve its customers better.

Mr Thomas Dijohn, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific, at dacadoo, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital thought process and consumers have become super comfortable doing things online. “Banks have an opportunity to help their customers by offering health conversations in their propositions, and for insurers there is an opportunity to upskill their product offerings,” he said.

The two-day event, which has as its theme, "Bancassurance Reinvented", is sponsored by dacadoo and organised by Asia Insurance Review.

Source: Asia insurance review