Nearly a decade ago, thefinancial services industry regulators, Bank of Ghana and National Insurance Commission, in keeping up to trends saw the need to open up the financial space and bridge the gap in service delivery through insurance companies and universal banks in the country.
The same happened in the developed markets of Britain and the rest of Europe in the 50s, 60s and 70s where banks partnered insurance companies to tremendous success and saw many citizens purchase insurance policies seamlessly through banks.
Thus the introduction of bancassurance, a service or proposition that allows banks to partner insurance companies to sell insurance products to the bank’s customers came to Ghana. Since the opening up of the market in this country, over 25 licences have been given to banks to undertake this venture.
Indeed bancassurance has helped bring insurance to many Ghanaians since there are more bank customers than insurance clients but a lot more still needs to be done in order to see insurance penetration go beyond the current 2percent.
A couple of traditionally European banks got in on the action pretty early but one bank that has really transformed the bancassurance space and doing more than many other banks is Stanbic Bank.
Since it received the approval to undertake bancassurance, Stanbic has partnered Metropolitan Insurance for general or non-life insurance and Metropolitan Life Insurance for life insurance; both companies currently have no connection or parentage, just a coincidence of name.
Since it commenced bancassurance, Stanbic can lay claim to issuing averagely over 1,000 funeral policies on a monthly basis, and supporting a strong vehicle and asset finance product with an innovative motor insurance policy while at the same time making it possible for all its customers to purchase their motor insurance and home insurance solutions directly.
The bank’s staffs are well trained to attend to their customers so much that 90percent of the motor insurance policies sold by the bank are renewals by motorists who used to purchase from insurance companies.
In an interview with the Head of Bancassurance, Henry Manyo-Plange, he stated that bancassurance provides a win-win situation for all those involved: banks, insurers and customers.
Through bancassurance, he added that the bank is better able to stay relevant to its customers throughout their lifecycle.
“You may come in as a student and we grow with you through perhaps your ownership of a business and retirement and through this period the bank should be able to make your life much easier to live. That is what bancassurance does for us as customers. The bank becomes a one-stop-shop for the customer’s financial service needs, insurance services included.”
He added that Stanbic Bank, which is part of the South African based Standard Bank Group, takes bancassurance seriously so he is not surprised that Stanbic is in the vanguard of the change when it comes to bancassurance in Ghana.
“At Stanbic we realise that our customers are our partners and they bank with us for a reason which among other things speaks to reliability and a certain level of convenience and so we always want to look at all the touch points with the customer to offer that convenience. In these modern times bancassurance offers us that opportunity for an additional level of great service,” he said.
To buttress his point about how convenient the bank’s bancassurance is, Mr. Manyo-Plange, cited their motor insurance policy which allows customers to buy policies from the bank and where they are unable to pay the annual premium upfront, the bank makes it possible to pay their motor insurance policies on a monthly basis.
Despite posting great results and successes in its bancassurance proposition, the bankcontinuously keep refreshing and revamping its products portfolio, which currently stands at 8, to stay ahead of the times and speak to customers’ evolving tastes and needs.
To Stanbic, there is always more to be done, the bank is readying itself to launch three major products in the first quarter of this year which will see it become the undisputable leader in the bancassurance space.
From the technological back-end and system support, Stanbic is confident its policy and premium management system is comparable to none in the country.
“From the we carry on bancassurance the chunk of sales and administrative effort; marketing and advertising, sales and selling management, and premium administration and collection is taken off the insurance companies to allow them to focus on other important aspects including issuing and confirming cover and claims administration,” he added.
Customers of the bank can only look forward to better times ahead when they enagae with Stanbic Bank as walk-in customers or from the comfort of their office of sofas at home because Mr. Manyo-Plange believes that no other bank treats their customers with reverence like the way Stanbic does.
“For us it is about the customer and offering them seamless and convenient banking, and so for our Private Banking and Executive Banking customers, all they have to do is call us and apprise us of their travel itinerary abroad, and within an hour or two they have their Travel insurance cover in hand or in their email inbox; and that is how we intend to evolve to push the boundaries of service excellence through bancassurance,” he added.