Bancassurance in Hong Kong

James Wong

Thank you, Pierre. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I am pleased to give you an overview and insight into the success of our partnerships distribution, particularly with the bancassurance of Standard Chartered Bank. The exclusive Bancassurance agreement was signed in 1998; now we are in the fifth full year of operation. The coming together of two well-known and trusted friends creates a very attractive proposition for the customers. Our ability to embrace change and explore new opportunities in tandem with the ambitions and aspirations of our partner bank is the cornerstone to our success.
As you can see from this slide, from 1999 to 2003 we roughly doubled our APE's from our tied agencies, and over the same period our bancassurance business grew exponentially. Today it is a very material contributor to our business.
Pierre earlier talked about our distribution (manual?) and the ability to mix and match with the banks strengths to maximise the distribution capability and to offer our customers a choice appropriate to the marketplace. Reaching our banks customers is key to realising huge potential. This is achieved by understanding the banks customer sentiments and the interaction with each, to develop a joint strategy to maximise the opportunity at all counter points. I must stress that all this is undertaken jointly. Both Prudential and Standard Chartered Bank are very committed to multi-channel distributions. All the channels on this line are in place. In the time we have available, I will concentrate on the three more established channels, namely the financial services consultants, the bank staff, and direct marketing & telemarketing.
The financial services consultants are employees. They are put through a five week comprehensive training programme, and will be reinforced by ongoing training. They have six-monthly performance appraisals and a well-defined career development programme. We now have 120 FSC's covering Standard Chartereds 60-branch network. They are assigned to work at 42 of the bigger branches to provide a permanent six day a week presence. The remaining force operates as mobile FSC's. They target non-bank customers and operate from a bancassurance centre in Kowloon, a special facility for them, meeting clients outside the branches.
The FSC force is organised to Standard Chartereds districts to ensure a strong working relationship with local branch managers and staff. Our FSC force are classified into seven subgroups, each with different expertise and targeted at different customer segments. Two examples of this would be:
Standard Chartered has a strong sales culture and capable distribution network. The branch channel banks own staff selling was launched in 2002, to utilise this capability, with trained and licensed Standard Chartered front-line branch staff. 370 or 40% of front-line branch staff are active selling life insurance. The products they sell are straightforward, easy to understand saving plans with minimal or no underwriting requirement. This is key. Complex needs are referred to Financial Services Consultants. Both the branches and individuals have targets to achieve, and rewards and recognition programs to back these. The base of single product customers is growing with cross-sale and up-sale through our CLE's
Our direct marketing and telemarketing again increased customer reach. Primary focused on the credit-card customers, they also give us access to other customers who do not visit the branch regularly. The channel was launched in 2000, and, as you can see from the figures, is a substantial contribution to our partnership. In addition to customer acquisition, there are huge opportunities for us to further up-sale and cross-sale from the new generation programmes to create face to face interaction.
I have spoken about our distribution and match to customer segments. The third element is a comprehensive product range. Joint sales and marketing strategies and targeted product offerings matched to customer groups and distribution channels make for a very powerful preposition for our customers. All of this together, with customer needs and wants at the centre, provide the business with clear direction, efficiency of distribution and create new opportunity for future growth. I would like to share with you the view of our partners at Standard Chartered Bank.

(Video)

Hello. I manage the consumer banking business for Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. We have 3,000 staff, serving about 1 million banking customers and almost 2 million credit card holders. I'm very proud to say that we recently won the Best Retail Bank in Hong Kong Award from The Asian Banker and the Overall Champion Award from the Hong Kong Association of Customer Excellence. I believe that our success stems from our excellent range of products, our commitment to customer service as well as our very efficient sales model. At Standard Chartered Bank we believe in combining the strengths of different corporations to enrich our customer offering. We have a huge range of third party products on offer. For example, in unit trust we have over thousand unit trust managed by different fund houses, for equity business we depend on a third party brokerage for execution, and for our life insurance offering we have Prudential. When choosing a insurance partner, we obviously look for good credit rating, stable financial performance and a good reputation. We also appreciate good track record, we appreciate international presence and strong local knowledge. Many insurers have these credentials and the financial terms on offer were very similar, but we found something extra in Prudential. Something intangible, but something that holds the key to the success of any partnership. This is the cultural fit between our two organisations. The Prudential team demonstrated the values that we as Standard Chartered Bank believe in: Courage, the courage to challenge the discourse and drive for quantum leaps in business performance. Prudential took the alternative distribution to new heights. Creativity. Prudential was very innovative in its product designs. Responsiveness. The timing of the product roll-outs were impeccable and it really met the customers needs during different economic cycles. Then there's International. Prudential introduced best international practices into our business pro! position. Most importantly, trustworthiness. Prudential is passionate about customer success, and that's what is very important in delivering to the end user, the customer. I think that the financial results we have achieved year after year is the best testimony for the success of our partnership, and I look forward to many more years of joint success. Thank you.

James Wong

We are proud of what we have achieved, but also aware of the unrealised potential. Working together with Standard Chartered, we are committed to being the best that bancassurance has to offer. Best practise is shared within our partners, and of course our business. Thank you.
Now, I would like to pass the podium to Mike Bishop, CEO of PCA Life in Korea, to talk about our multi distribution channel model in Korea. Thank you.

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