KUALA LUMPUR: Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd and its subsidiary Alliance Islamic Bank Bhd have entered into an exclusive 15-year partnership with Zurich General Insurance Bhd and Zurich General Takaful Bhd to establish general bancassurance and bancatakaful partnerships in Malaysia.
According to Alliance Bank group CEO Joel Kornreich, the partnership is expected to generate RM200 million over the 15-year period.
Meanwhile, Zurich General Insurance Malaysia CEO David Fike said Malaysia’s general insurance penetration stands at a low of 1.23% of GDP and the partnership with Alliance Bank would enable them to grab a large share of the insurance market, particularly the huge potential among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“The Malaysian market is largely made up of SMEs and a lot of them needs to have accessibility, and the partnership with Alliance Bank provides that accessibility,” he said to the media at the signing ceremony between the two financial institutions today.
Currently, Zurich is ranked seventh in Malaysia’s insurance and takaful market with a market share of over 5%.
Alliance and Zurich have identified fire insurance as the general insurance product to be offered by the partnership in May, with another six to 12 insurance and takaful product to be available to the public by the end of their first year.
