Buletin Takaful

Source: The Star, 24th April 2010

Takaful players of late, have been aggressively scouting for non-bumiputra agents to strengthen their grip in the lucrative Islamic insurance market.

With more existing players looking to enhance their takaful footprint coupled with potential new entries joining the fray, the demand for these agents according to industry observers was expected to surge over the coming years.

Two new takaful players are expected to come on board this year as part of the Government’s financial sector liberalisation initiative. Bank Negara was currently evaluating and processing various applications. The deadline for applications lapsed in December last year.

There are currently eight takaful operators and two retakaful operators in Malaysia. Takaful assets and net contributions experienced strong growth, advancing at an average 21% and 29% respectively, from 2004 to 2008.

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd (STMB) group managing director Datuk Hassan Kamil admitted in recent times more companies have been expanding their distribution channels through non-bumi agents as takaful products had attracted bumiputra and non-bumiputra customers.

Furthermore, due to the growing importance of Islamic insurance, takaful products are no longer being positioned as an alternative to insurance, but rather as consumers preferred choice of products, Hassan told Starbiz

“In the past, many of the non-bumiputra agents were skeptical about their knowledge of takaful and thus had no confidence in promoting the products. However, the industry since two years ago has introduced the Takaful Basic Examination for agents to qualify them to distribute takaful products.

“This helps the non-bumiputra agents to be well equipped (licensed) with fundamental knowledge of takaful and has encouraged many non-bumiputra agents to venture into the business,” he added.

An industry observer said more Takaful companies are adopting ‘Takaful For All’ approach, which states that takaful solutions are applicable to everyone , regardless of faiths and/or races.

Hassan said STMB encourage bumiputra and non-bumiputra agents to join the company and would equip them the necessary training and development to ensure agents have fundamental knowledge about takaful products before promoting the products to the public.

STMB currently has about 350 agents and estimate this number to grow up to 1,000 by year-end with its aggressive recruitment activities and campaign.

In a bid to become the “preferred choice for insurance”, Hassan added STMB was also seeking non-bumiputra agents to join the company.

MAA Takaful Bhd CEO Salim Majid Zain felt it was natural to recruit non-bumiputra agents to target the non-bumiputra customers.

Having said that, he added another reason of the huge entrance of non-bumiputra agents into the takaful arena was due to the fact that new players (including MAA Takaful) were mostly from the conventional insurance space where non-bumiputra agents also sold takaful.

This year, MAA Takaful plan to recruit 2,000 quality agents whereby 35% are non-bumiputra agents. Salim said it now has a total of 6,000 active agents, out of which 2,000 are non-bumiputras. The company’s Top Agency Manager was a non-bumiputra, he said.

Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd (PAMB) CEO Charlie E. Oropeza said the company when coming to agency recruitment, had always placed equal emphasis on growing both the bumiputra and non-bumiputra segments.

As at Dec 31, 2009, PAMB had more than 11,700 agents and Wealth Planners. Out of this, about 3,800 were bumiputra agents. During the period, he said almost half of the agency force (about 5,350) were distributing takaful products. Of these 5,350 agents, Oropeza added 51% were non-bumiputra agents.