Great Eastern goes for growth in Malaysia’s takaful market

Great Eastern Life Assurance
Company (GEL), Singapore’s largest and oldest life insurer, made a
significant move into Malaysia’s Islamic, Sharia law-compliant
takaful market with the launch of Great Eastern Takaful in
December 2010.

Great Eastern Takaful is a
joint venture with Koperasi Angkatan Malaysia Berhad, a financial
services company serving the 140,000 regular, voluntary and
civilian members of Malaysia’s armed forces.

The launch followed the
granting of Family Takaful (life insurance) licences in September
2010 to GEL, Dutch insurer ING Groep, Malaysian financial service
company AMMB Holdings and American International Group’s Asian unit
American International Assurance.

American International
Assurance listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
in October 2010.

Great Eastern Holdings
chairperson Fang Ai Lian said: “Malaysia is a key and significant
market for the Great Eastern Group.

“This makes it the perfect
platform for us to launch our takaful business. The market
penetration rate for the takaful business in Malaysia
remains relatively low.”

She added that as part of the
GEL, Great Eastern Takaful will be able to leverage on the 17,000
agents from GEL’s Malaysia distribution channel.

GEL, which holds a market share of over 20% in Malaysia’s
conventional life market, is targeting premium income of MYR180m
($57m) from Great Eastern Takaful in its first full year of
operation.

Sign up for our daily news round-up!

Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.

Sign up