ING-Public Bank JV to show profits by 4th year
Nov 19th, 2010 by 1takaful
Source: The Star, 19th November 2010
ING Insurance Bhd and Public Bank Bhd’s new takaful firm aims to be profitable by its fourth year of business as it taps Malaysia’s underserved insurance market, and eventually expand into Indonesia and Hong Kong, its owners said yesterday.
The insurer, which received one of four family takaful licences awarded in September, will launch its first product in April in Malaysia where acceptance of takaful is limited and insurance penetration is among Asia’s lowest.
Penetration of life insurance is very low in Malaysia compared with some regional markets. It’s an immature market, ING chief executive officer Nirmala Menon said in an interview.
We need to get to a stage where its like Taiwan or Korea where each person has six-seven policies and understands the need to have them.
Malaysia has the world’s largest sukuk market and Islamic assets account for about a fifth of the total banking system but takaful has struggled to make a mark in the country.
There are eight Islamic insurers in Malaysia but the takaful penetration rate was only 10.5% as at June this year compared with 42.3% for conventional insurance, according to central bank data.
The total insurance penetration rate of 52.8 is much lower than Hong Kong’s 120% and Japan’s 200% as estimated by some industry players.
Menon said the joint venture was expected to break even in its third year of business although it had to work to overcome the low awareness and misconceptions about Islamic insurance among Malaysians.
In the Chinese market, life insurance penetration is close to 80%-85% whereas in the Muslim market the penetration is below 10% so the maximum opportunity is within the booming Muslim market in Malaysia, she said.
Under the takaful model, participants contribute to a takaful fund. Contributions are separated from the takaful operator’s assets and participants have an ownership interest in the fund.
When the fund makes money, the surplus is shared between the participants and, in some cases the takaful operator. When there is a loss, participants could be asked to contribute but the takaful operator will typically provide an interest-free loan.
Public Bank managing director Tay Ah Lek said the joint venture would tap the regional market after it secured its domestic business on a strong footing.
We see Indonesia as a key market. It is something that we would be looking at very aggressively, he said.
We already have a partnership with Public Bank in Hong Kong and that is also an area where there’s an ability for us to transport this sort of things.
Total takaful contributions could reach US$7.7bil (RM24bil) a year by 2012, Ernst & Young forecast. But global takaful contributions are less than 1% of the total insurance premium spend annually, according to industry lawyers Clyde & Co.