Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Enterprise Life Assurance Company (ELAC), on Friday introduced a new product into the financial market that would enable customers of the SCB to purchase various life insurance policies from ELAC through the bank. The product, called Bancassurance, was designed to position SCB as a one stop shop for all financial transactions, including the sale of life insurance products that covered child-education, accident, hospitalization and funeral expenses among other. The product was first introduced in France and it had since spread successfully throughout the whole of Europe. For starters, however SCB and ELAC had developed a specially designed funeral expenses cover policy dubbed: Family Funeral Plan (FFP), to provide immediate cash payout to policy holders for the funerals of their loved ones. The FFP policy covered the policy holder, his or her spouse, up to six children of ages up to 21 years, parents up to age 75 and parents in-law also up to age 75. Ms. Josephine Amoah, Commissioner of the National Insurance Commission (NIC), in an address noted that it wasrefreshing that oldest bank and the oldest insurer in Ghana could collaborate to introduce such an innovative product on the countries financial market. “This means that after today, direct Sales Executives of SCB will be selling life assurance products issued by ELAC through SCB’s branches,” she said. She noted that with a total market premium income of GH 162.5 million cedis in 2006, insurance penetration in Ghana was still very low and needed products like Bancassurance to grow the insurance business in the country. Ms. Amoah said the introduction of Bancassurance in Ghana signified the rise of a new dawn, which brought with it numerous opportunities for the growth of insurance business in the country, especially the growth of life assurance. She noted that ELAC was the first life assurance company to emerge in response to the NIC’s request that life assurance should be separated from non-life business to give it the needed attention. “As at 2006, ELAC had risen to become the third largest life assurance company with a premium income of about GH 6.5 million cedis and a market share of 13 per cent of the total market life premium of GH 49 million cedis,” she said. She noted that in this era of universal banking, high competition and falling interest rates, banks were trying to venture into selling other financial products, adding that with their wide network of branches across the country and large client base, banks could be a vital distribution channel and viable solution to the mass selling of life insurance products. Ms. Amoah urged the sales executives of the bank to be aggressive in the sale of Bancassurance products, saying that life assurance products had not been an over the counter product and it would therefore require a bit of aggressiveness for customers to buy into the idea of purchasing policies over the counter. She advised that emphasis should be placed on selling simple risk products, which were easy to handle, instead of investment plans or savings products, which could be in competition with the bank’s own products. More Ms. Amoah said the emergence of such integrated and unified service between the banking and insurance industries, should lead to the emergence of the regulatory bodies and regulations of the banking, insurance and securities industry in the country. In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Kwadwo Baah- Wiredu welcomed Bancassurance as a step in the right direction and in line with government’s agenda to transform the nation’s economy for the betterment of the living standards of the citizens. “We are privileged as a country to have such a novelty product, introduced into our market,” he said. “It is my hope that this new product will help to break the myth around insurance and help people embrace insurance products the more.” Mr. George Otoo, Managing Director of Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC), the mother company of ELAC said the product would deliver value to the customer, the insurer, bank and the economy at large and therefore urged customers to embrace it. Mr. Henry Baye, General Manager, Wealth Management, West Africa, SCB assured customers and potential customers that the days of delays and feet-dragging in paying insurance claims were long gone, adding that Bancassurance was introduced to provide Ghanaians with insurance cover for uncertainties. Source: GNA