Zurich insurance to launch takaful products in 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Zurich Insurance Malaysia Bhd expects to launch new takaful products in early 2018 and hopes the syariahcompliant insurance products to be its growth engine.

Its president of General Insurance, David Fike said the company was working with partners to create affordable takaful products.

“Takaful currently contributes only a small percentage to our revenue but moving forward we expect it to be the growth engine, not only for Zurich Insurance Malaysia but also worldwide,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the company’s community week themed ‘Zutopia’ here recently.

Fike noted that the company was focusing on increasing its insurance penetration and believed that takaful would enable it to do so.

“With the International Monetary Fund revising upward its growth forecast for Malaysia to 4.8 per cent for 2017 from 4.5 per cent, we are looking forward to riding on that and being able to improve our growth in the second half of this year,” he added.

Fike said for the first six months of this year, Zurich Insurance Malaysia’s performance was above the market average.

For example, the company recorded a 14 per cent growth in the conventional life insurance market against industry growth of five per cent, he added.

Last year, Zurich Insurance Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group, completed the acquisition of MAA Takaful Bhd (MAAT), a leading provider of Takaful products in Malaysia, from MAA Group Bhd and Solidarity Group Holding BSC.

The combination of MAAT’s range of products and Zurich’s existing insurance solutions enables it to provide customers in Malaysia with a full suite of insurance products and solutions, spanning life insurance, general insurance, family takaful and general takaful. — Bernama