Manulife Holdings Bhd CEO Michael Chan shares his views and outlook on the year ahead.
TEFD: What are your expectations for 2012 for your company and the insurance industry?
We would like to drive profitable growth in 2012 leveraging on our success in 2011. We have successfully moved to investment-linked insurance products which helped to contribute more than 50% of our new business sales. Therefore, continuing our shift to investment-linked products remains a key initiative for this year.
For the industry to grow, we would like to see a fair playing field for all insurance companies to maintain a healthy competition. The industry should also strive to build awareness of the types of insurance products that benefit the public and the importance of conducting financial planning courses at least once a year.
What is the impact, if any, do you expect from the euro crisis?
We see little impact the eurozone crisis will have on the insurance industry as it has proven to be resilient through different financial crises. Unlike many others, the insurance industry is largely unaffected by such situations due to the needs-based planning for customers.
Will Bank Negara Malaysia’s recent tightening of consumer borrowings have an impact?
We commend Bank Negara Malaysia on introducing the guidelines as this will help to reduce household debt. Overall, we foresee minimum impact on the insurance industry compared with the property sector, for example.
Generally, Malaysians are now more aware of the importance of having a life insurance plan and it has become an important part of financial planning for them. As such when needs are identified, the purchase decisions are generally not delayed.
What are the company’s plans and focus for 2012?
Our main priority is to strengthen our distribution capabilities. As a multi-distribution company we will continue growing our agency channel while increasing our focus on bancassurance and financial advisory business.
On the agency front, we will implement programmes to grow agency productivity and recruitment initiatives, and continue improving professionalism of our agency force to better serve customers.
We will also focus our bancassurance and financial advisory businesses by expanding the product portfolio to these channels.
To support our distribution channels, we will increase our regional support centres (RSCs) from the current eight. The next RSC in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, will open in the middle of February this year.
What is your personal wish list for 2012?
I wish for Manulife Malaysia to continue to grow in insurance and wealth management businesses and to be a significant player in these areas. I also wish to ensure homegrown talent within the company to take on future leadership roles. I will be looking to identify and develop in-house talent to maximise their potential.
The 2012 CEO Outlook series started on Dec 19, 2011 and will run every day through January. Among those TEFD has interviewed are Geoffrey Briscoe of BMW Malaysia, Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow of Public Bank Bhd, Jeffrey Chew of OCBC Bank (M) Bhd, Osman Morad of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd, Yvonne Chia of Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Tan Sri Lee Oi Hian of Kuala Lumpur-Kepong Bhd, among many others. If you’ve missed any of these, please read our back issues on iPad for free.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, January 19, 2012.
TEFD: What are your expectations for 2012 for your company and the insurance industry?
We would like to drive profitable growth in 2012 leveraging on our success in 2011. We have successfully moved to investment-linked insurance products which helped to contribute more than 50% of our new business sales. Therefore, continuing our shift to investment-linked products remains a key initiative for this year.
For the industry to grow, we would like to see a fair playing field for all insurance companies to maintain a healthy competition. The industry should also strive to build awareness of the types of insurance products that benefit the public and the importance of conducting financial planning courses at least once a year.
What is the impact, if any, do you expect from the euro crisis?
We see little impact the eurozone crisis will have on the insurance industry as it has proven to be resilient through different financial crises. Unlike many others, the insurance industry is largely unaffected by such situations due to the needs-based planning for customers.
Will Bank Negara Malaysia’s recent tightening of consumer borrowings have an impact?
We commend Bank Negara Malaysia on introducing the guidelines as this will help to reduce household debt. Overall, we foresee minimum impact on the insurance industry compared with the property sector, for example.
Generally, Malaysians are now more aware of the importance of having a life insurance plan and it has become an important part of financial planning for them. As such when needs are identified, the purchase decisions are generally not delayed.
Chan: We would like to see a fair playing field for all insurance companies to maintain a healthy competition.
What are the company’s plans and focus for 2012?
Our main priority is to strengthen our distribution capabilities. As a multi-distribution company we will continue growing our agency channel while increasing our focus on bancassurance and financial advisory business.
On the agency front, we will implement programmes to grow agency productivity and recruitment initiatives, and continue improving professionalism of our agency force to better serve customers.
We will also focus our bancassurance and financial advisory businesses by expanding the product portfolio to these channels.
To support our distribution channels, we will increase our regional support centres (RSCs) from the current eight. The next RSC in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, will open in the middle of February this year.
What is your personal wish list for 2012?
I wish for Manulife Malaysia to continue to grow in insurance and wealth management businesses and to be a significant player in these areas. I also wish to ensure homegrown talent within the company to take on future leadership roles. I will be looking to identify and develop in-house talent to maximise their potential.
The 2012 CEO Outlook series started on Dec 19, 2011 and will run every day through January. Among those TEFD has interviewed are Geoffrey Briscoe of BMW Malaysia, Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow of Public Bank Bhd, Jeffrey Chew of OCBC Bank (M) Bhd, Osman Morad of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd, Yvonne Chia of Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Tan Sri Lee Oi Hian of Kuala Lumpur-Kepong Bhd, among many others. If you’ve missed any of these, please read our back issues on iPad for free.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, January 19, 2012.
