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FNB Insure CEO Himal Parbhoo is confident of the insurer’s growth prospects, pointing to its solutions to meet customer needs and the sizeable distribution network compared to its peers in a fiercely contested market.
Parbhoo said one of the ways to grow was through integrating its insurance products into the sale of devices, whether merchant devices or smartphones sold through FNB Connect. “This is an example of how we’ve got the product and we can improve the process.”
He said another example was scaling its motor insurance through its partnership with WesBank; and it was also wooing customers by including eBucks rewards in insurance products.
Since last year, customers have been able to get up to 80% off flights for taking up short-term insurance, and at a certain level, they can get up to 40% back on their premium. “We’re looking to do more of those value additions to help with the growth and the scale of the product.”
FNB Insure is able to sell policies to existing clients and concedes that the competition is fierce in funeral insurance, with more people changing insurance providers when they switch banks.
“Competition in the market is rife, but we can also see the clients tend to take on multiple products and multiple funeral policies across the different providers and so tend to have more than one policy, but we seek to try and keep the customers,” Parbhoo said.
The end-to-end management and the ease of use of the products and the service from advisers in the FNB ecosystem were an advantage, Parbhoo told Business Times.
“Not many other institutions can tie everything up and see for you from your banking, borrowing, insurance, and that kind of thing not only for an individual, but we do it across the family. We can protect and deliver that through our channels,” he said.
South Africa’s insurers are under pressure to adapt not only to technology but also to faster claims processing, which is a differentiator, and FNB Insure has gone further by focusing on service.
Parbhoo takes service seriously and a year ago increased its advisory capacity. He maintains that South Africa won’t get to a stage where it does away with advisers, saying when it comes to money, people want to talk to someone about their affairs. “They invest large sums of money, they protect large sums of money, and they want to talk to someone about it.”
This is why FNB Insure is removing the “administrative burden” to ensure advisers can have the honest conversation with the customers.
The Insure profit grew 8% to R4.1bn in the last year and gross written premiums jumped 12% to R9.6bn over the last year in its short-term insurance segment, underscoring efforts to grow customers by the FirstRand retail segment.
The business has been scaling its product distribution using its banking channels and financial advisers to retain and grow customers across the lender’s vast payment network.
Parbhoo said the lender uses the branch and adviser network to cross-sell products to customers and uses the channels to distribute products. For example, in terms of underwritten insurance, customers may take policies elsewhere, and with the growth of advisers, the lender is able to advise them on their policies, as they are able to see when customers are underinsured or not insured at all.
“We’ve got a wide distribution network, plus our insights into the clients, and the client base itself is also an opportunity to grow into customers,” he said.
The lender’s digital platform is also increasing customers, as they are able to take up funeral policies on the app.
He said a large proportion of those clients are able to do straight-through processing of the policies, which means they don’t need someone in the back end to oversee the deals and applications.
FNB Insure comprises short- and long-term insurance and investments and is taking advantage of the bank’s portfolio, including FNB Connect, which will be used to sell its short-term products.
In short-term vehicle insurance, the growth in Chinese vehicle sales is changing the dynamics for FNB Insure. Its share of the vehicle insurance market is moving in the direction of the client.
“In fact, we’re making sure that we can manage the value change when cars are in accidents so that we can get parts and panelbeating because now that we need more use of those parts. We’re seeing more Chinese vehicles being insured now by our clients.”
Business Times
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