|
Extracts from the address of the Chairman, YM Tunku Ya’acob Bin Tunku Abdullah at the Twenty-Nineth
Annual General Meeting held on 20th March 2002 Our membership has decreased by 2 this year due to the discontinuance of Allianz Life Insurance (M) Berhad and Allianz General Insurance (M) Berhad as members of the Association. In both cases, these insurers cease to be members because of their inability to comply with Malaysian shareholding requirements as set by our Constitution.
Teras Malaysia which is a life insurance product that caters for the insurance needs for the middle and working class, has now entered its fourth year of operation. Teras Malaysia has been well-accepted by the public and the eight participating companies have achieved a sales record of 88,000 policies with an annualised premium of RM67.5 million for the 3 years period from October 1998 to September 2001. As part of the product advertising and promotional activities, we have held three Super Bonanza Lucky Draws for agents. The 4th Super Bonanza lucky draw contest is for the period from January 2002 to September 2002. All Agents are entitled to one lucky draw coupon for every ringgit of new business premium sold during the said period. For your information, a budget of RM100,000 for the prizes has been allocated. The Teras Malaysia Steering Committee is
chaired by Mr Toi See Jong of Mayban Life Assurance Bhd. This Committee
under Mr Toi’s very capable leadership, has also planned the next phase
of their marketing campaign, and look forward to even better results
from Teras Malaysia. Sihat Malaysia is the hospital and surgical product for both life and general insurers. The product was created out of joint effort of our member companies in September 1999 with the objective of using common pricing, policy conditions, coverage and promotional activities. The Sihat Malaysia product, offers ‘cashless’ hospital admission and discharge facilities, with comprehensive coverage of medical, hospital and surgical insurance benefits. In the last two and a half years, we have invested heavily in product promotion through an aggressive advertising campaign in the press, radio and TV. The same continues for this year, and assured by the Standing Committee, that they will continue to take advantage of this economy of scale of having 25 member companies sharing the advertising and promotional expenditure, to promote the Sihat Malaysia brand name. Based on the results experienced during the last two years, the Standing Committee discussed at great length and have introduced effective 1st April 2002 new enhancements, especially in the area of Claims Payment Approach, Revision on Premium Rates, Improved Policy Wordings, the Bahasa Malaysia translation, Implementation of Practice Guide and the setting up of a Panel of Approved Hospitals for cashless service.
In addition to the posters and sales brochures that have been developed in all four languages, NIAM has also produced VCD and VHS multimedia presentation as marketing tools for Members. To-date, I am happy to report that the
total number of Sihat Malaysia cardholders have reached to 251,934 and
with total annual premium income of RM62 million representing about
25% share of the Malaysian Hospital & Surgical market. The Annuity Malaysia scheme was suspended and subsequently cancelled by the Government on 10 May 2001 due to objections by the MTUC. However, the six approved conventional annuity insurance companies have gone to great lengths to assure existing policy holders that their policies are still valid with full benefits still intact and which will continue to be honoured. The total business confirmed until the date the scheme was scrapped was 273,392 policies with total single premium income of RM5.1 billion. It was indeed unfortunate that the Government saw fit to bow to the demands of the MTUC, and had reacted by withdrawing the right of choice of EPF contributors. The Annuity Malaysia scheme was a great product to help people plan for their retirement and its loss will be sadly missed, not just by our member companies, but also by many members of the EPF who would have liked to plan their retirement better. The Standing Committee together with their
actuaries have not been idle, and are now working on a Second scheme,
which is Investment Linked based, and which we hope will be submitted
to Bank Negara for consideration prior to the presentation with the
EPF. The Government is embarking on the Third National Agricultural Policy which aims to transform the agricultural sector to meet local food requirements and enable Malaysia to become a food processor and exporter for the region. In August 2001, Bank Negara approached NIAM to formulate a national agriculture insurance scheme, based on NIAM’s successes in designing and promoting Teras Malaysia, Sihat Malaysia and Annuity Malaysia. Based on this request, Tani Malaysia was created. About 20 NIAM member companies have indicated their interest to participate in the Tani Malaysia Scheme, which will see the creation of a joint product for the agricultural sector which offers common pricing, promotion, underwriting and claims processing. The Tani Malaysia Technical Committee under the leadership of Mr Lai Poong Shen, from UOA Assurance has submitted a proposal on the scheme to Bank Negara and the Ministry of Agriculture. The said Ministry will further submit their recommendations to the Cabinet for approval and we understand that the Government would like to launch the product during the second quarter of 2002. Unlike the other NIAM sponsored projects, Tani Malaysia will be unique in two areas. The first being that NIAM will incorporate a Tani Malaysia Management Company (being a 100% subsidiary of NIAM) to put in place a structure that will underwrite, settle claims, arrange reinsurance support and handle all administrative matters to further the Tani Malaysia product. This structure will therefore, leave insurance companies free to merely participate in the Tani Malaysia Risk pool without having to develop any in-house expertise. Secondly, the Tani Malaysia scheme will
be unique as we understand the premiums payable will be partly or wholly
subsidied by the Government. Over the years, NIAM has been focusing its attention on the improvement in professionalism, leadership and marketing skills of our Managers. In the year 2001, despite the economic slowdown, we have successfully conducted a total of 6 seminars for middle and top management. For the programmes, we had a number of well-established and experienced speakers like Mr Mark Loo, Tn Hj Tajodin, Prof. Peter Sheldrake, Mr Brian Cracknell and Mrs Andal Krishnan. The Top Management seminar is planned for July and will be held in Phuket. In view of favourable support and feedback
from our member companies, we shall be continuing with our seminars
and will be carrying out 8 programmes for this year. NATIONAL INSURANCE CLAIMS SOCIETY (NICS) NICS or the National Insurance Claims Society was sponsored and launched by NIAM on 15 December 1998. The Society is presently chaired by Mr Thomas Zachariah from Malaysian Re, with support and assistance from his 10 Executive Committee Members. For the year 2001, NICS had organized a training programme on Techniques for Insurance Claims, which was attended by 50 participants from our claims industry. During the year, NICS had also organized visit to the West Port in August 2001. The NICS Executive Committee had a meeting with Repairers’ Association and a Closed-Door dialogue with Police, including with ACP Zakaria Abd Hamid, of IPK Headquarters at Hulu Langat during July 2001. Several cocktail receptions were also held involving Claims Managers from member companies with the objective of creating better team spirit within the industry. The members of NICS are all NIAM members companies, Individuals from the Claims Department of member companies and from the loss adjustment industry may participate in NICS in their capacity as Associate members. I hope that NICS will continue to have
the full support from our member companies, for if we are serious about
managing claims we must commit our time and resources to this very worthy
organisation. Claims, as the single largest cost component of our operations,
should never be underestimated. The development of professional and
highly competent claims management is paramount for the long-term success
of our industry. NATIONAL INSURANCE CONSULTANTS CONGRESS (NICC) The Life Insurance Agents of our member companies had approached NIAM last year, to help them set up a new agents association purely for agents of Malaysian controlled insurers. This drive was initiated because they felt that their interest was not being supported by NAMLIA during the Annuity Malaysia suspension controversy. In particular, they felt that where NAMLIA should have publicly come out in support of Annuity Malaysia, NAMLIA had betrayed their interest by instead announcing that the EPF scheme should be open to all insurers.
In this respect, NIAM has agreed to sponsor and support the Malaysian Life Insurance Agents and further agreed to sponsor the formation of the National Insurance Consultants Congress or NICC for short. By its new Constitution, only Agents’ Associations
of NIAM Member Life companies can be members of the NICC, with each
Agents’ Association having three representatives as committee members
on NICC. NIAM RI CLUB COCKTAILS NIAM has been organizing quarterly cocktail receptions under the NIAM Club Cocktail banner. The Association’s objective in organizing such gatherings is to bring together CEOs and senior management of local companies to develop trust and co-operation. By knowing each other, we should be better able to grow together. To make the event more meaningful, in the previous NIAM cocktails, we had invited speakers for short talks on subject that are relevant to our general interest.
It is indeed very rare to see so many companies, who are in fact competitors in the same field, come together to achieve goodwill and develop a healthy working partnership. NIAM has become great and the Malaysian Insurance
industry has become great. There is no other insurance organization
anywhere in the world that has ever come up with so many joint developments,
like we have in Teras Malaysia, Sihat Malaysia, Anuiti Malaysia and
Tani Malaysia. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
