HAVING made Malaysia its home, Generali Malaysia sees strong growth potential in the country due to its low insurance penetration rate.
Towards this end, the Italian insurer with operation in over 50 countries has set its sight on driving social progress in Malaysia by narrowing the protection gap and improving its product proposition to be inclusive, affordable and accessible for everyone, according to its CEO and Country Head for Generali entities in Malaysia Fabrice Benard.
“There’s still an urgent need to create awareness on the importance of insurance protection and financial literacy, especially among the underserved segment,” he told FocusM. “Hence, it is our focus at Generali to narrow the protection gap and ensure that our products are inclusive, affordable, accessible for everyone, making sure that no one is left behind.”
Towards this end, Generali Malaysia has earmarked three marketing strategies:
- Product solutions: Knowing that each customer holds different, varying needs in their life, there is a need to continuously find ways to be more inclusive, yet innovative and personalised in the company’s product offerings to create avenues for new protection.
- Closing the insurance penetration gap: Part of its commitment is to ensure that the underserved segment receive the protection that they need.
- Value-added service ecosystem: Cover all customer needs through distribution network and strategic partnerships and all types of services: information, prevention, protection, assistance. Customers will be able to choose the most relevant by scaling its health, mobility, home and SME (small medium enterprises) propositions.
Major inroad into Malaysia
Moving forward, Benard expects the combined businesses from Generali’s recent acquisition of a controlling majority in AXA Affin joint ventures in Malaysia and 100% purchase of MPI Generali Insurans Bhd will maximise the synergies of both businesses in terms of scale, breath and capabilities to meet the needs of a larger and more diversified business.
“This will provide our customers with increased competitiveness, enhanced experience and wider range of products,” Fabrice shared. “We will also be able to leverage the know-how and expertise from many talented individuals in all entities to further enhance our customer offerings.”
One of the largest global insurance and asset management providers with more than 190 years of heritage, Generali has been active in Malaysia since 2015 when it acquired a 49% stake in Multi-Purpose Insurans Bhd to create MPI Generali.
In 2022, Generali acquired full ownership of the MPI Generali joint venture and purchased a controlling majority in AXA Affin General and Life Insurance in Malaysia, allowing Generali to access the country’s Life insurance segment. The transaction which values the acquired companies at close to RM1.29 bil is one of the largest M&A (merger & acquisition) transactions in Malaysia in recent years.
The company’s competitive edge lies with its expanded scale, touchpoint and network upon integration. As the second largest general insurer and emerging life insurer in Malaysia, Generali Malaysia boasts a staff strength of over 1,600 employees, a wide distribution network of more than 9,000 agents and partners as well as 49 branches.
On the state of the Malaysian insurance market, Benard observed that the industry has gained good momentum since pandemic years with insurers having learnt to adapt to the changes as well as demonstrating resilience and strength in the face of adversity.
From January to March 2023, the combined general insurance and general takaful (Islamic insurance) registered a gross direct premium of RM7.07 bil, an increase of 11.8% over the same period in 2022 (1Q 2022: RM6.32 bil). The life insurance industry also recorded a 7.87% rise in new business sum insured amounting to RM184.1 bil in 1Q 2023.
Trends, challenges, opportunities
Interestingly, Generali Malaysia foresees a focus on takaful as the next big thing in the country.
“We recognise that takaful space is growing fast in Malaysia and a key for us in the long haul is to narrow the insurance protection gap,” projected Benard.
“While this is something that we will look into in the pipeline, our priority is to ensure a smooth integration at this stage. We are focusing on corporate streamlining while providing our customers, agents and partners with the best of experience.”
Elsewhere, Generali Malaysia is seeing the rise of advanced technology solution such as artificial intelligence (AI) in the domestic insurance landscape which has enabled new capabilities, more efficient operations and changed the way insurers approach their business.
“This also means that there will be more non-insurance/tech players operating on high data volume coming to the market with the interest of either integrating skills and technology with insurers to offer holistic customer experience, or even selling insurance themselves,” stressed Benard.
“While it’s an interesting space to watch, we believe that the future is all about human touch and nothing less.”
He added: “Apart from our strong legacy system, expertise and innovation, we believe ultimately it is the empathy that our people bring that gives us the competitive edge and creates memorable, long-term relationships.
“We call this the ‘phygital advice’ – where we hope to facilitate easy service with our customers, using a combination of best-in class digital tools and in-person interactions with our agents and partners.” – June 28, 2023
