Gibraltar BSN sets to attract more insurance policyholders in 2021
KUALA LUMPUR: Gibraltar BSN Life Bhd expects an increase in the number of policyholders in 2021 from the existing 500,000 it has now, on the back of new products offerings, a digital transformation programme, and aggressive sales.
President and chief executive officer Rangam Bir said the company is also optimistic of the growth of the life insurance business this year due to the rising customer awareness on the importance of protection amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This observation is supported by the uptake in our digital protection products, increase in requests for product information, and large attendance at our monthly webinars of around 280-350 customers per session,” Rangam told Bernama in an interview recently.
Besides that, Rangam said the company had defined the next strategic step under its PROPEL 2025 programme, a new five - year growth strategy that will see Gibraltar BSN leapfrogging innovation for strong value generation and accelerated growth.
“Since we have already strengthened our capabilities and infrastructure, we will ramp up and scale up in a major way across everything that we do.
“We will continue to pursue our strategies to become a digital-first, customer- driven
life insurer that delivers simple, relevant, and affordable protection propositions that’s connected to our customers’ lifestyle,” he said.
Rangam said the government’s recent announcement that allows withdrawals from Account 2 of the Employees Provident Fund for the purpose of purchasing approved life and critical illness insurance plans will push growth in the industry this year.
Low insurance penetration rate in Malaysia is one of the factors that threatens the financial stability of individuals and households, he noted.
In Budget 2021, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz announced several measures to boost the
penetration of life insurance in Malaysia.
Under PROPEL 2025, the insurer would grow customer access with digital advisory salesforce, strategic partnerships and digital ecosystem, as well as flexible and customisable propositions to cater for distinct protection needs and provide better value for our customers.
“This was a continuation of its ASCEND programme, a threeyear transformation programme to strengthen its digital capabilities,” he added.
Rangam said the insurer’s operations had not been impacted during movement control order (MCO) imposed by the government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As we had started our digital transformation early, we were actually able to react positively when Covid-19 struck.
“In fact, even before the government announced the MCO in March, we had already started operating on a split operation basis in February to make sure that our teams were distributed and moved our sales people to non-face-to-face sales,” he added.
Rangam said Gibraltar BSN has doled out an economic package to help its employees, especially those from the sales department who have been economically affected during the lockdown.
“While we took care of their welfare, we also wanted those who were affected to take the opportunity during the MCO period to train and upgrade themselves,” he said, adding that the company conducted online training for the employees, while engaging the customers.
Rangam said the life insurance company was able to turn around its business in June this year after recording a slow takeup rate early this year due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Together with its partner, Digi Malaysia, Gibraltar BSN launched a specific Covid-19 coverage plan ( COVID Cover) through a special campaign in April and May, which had attracted high levels of interest, with 57,000 policies sold during the period. — Bernama