KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd, which is aiming to grow its gross written premiums to RM1 billion this year from over RM900 million last year, is focusing on improving efficiency in 2019 leveraging on digital means.
Berjaya Sompo CEO Tan Sek Kee said with the detariffication of motor and fire insurance tariffs, it needs to look at ways to cut costs.
“We can’t keep on reducing the premiums, with costs remaining the same. It eats into our profit. We’re looking at digital as one of the means to grow the business and improve efficiency,” Tan told the media at a Chinese New Year luncheon today.
He said with digitisation utilising artificial intelligence and robotics, a lot of jobs are going away and banks have started processes to reduce the number of staff.
“We’re not looking at reducing staff at this stage but rather we want to maintain the same number of staff to grow our business in the fastest way. We started a new digital team to look into digital marketing,” added Tan.
He said Berjaya Sompo is on track to become one of the top five general insurers in Malaysia by 2023. It is currently the eighth largest general insurer in Malaysia as of the third quarter of 2018 with a market share of 5%.
Its chief distribution officer Stuart Chua said the market is challenging but growth will be driven by its bancaassurance partnership with CIMB Group Holdings Bhd as well as agency sales.
The insurer has 2,800 agents nationwide.
