Insurer shooting for 1 million clients within five years

Insurer FWD Group – whose business spans Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and the Philippines – eyes an eventual growth in its number of clients to one million within five years through the strengthening of sales of general insurance plans and the development of an online sales platform, Hong Kong-language media outlets reported. The target was quoted in a press briefing yesterday by FWD Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong and Macau and Executive President of the Greater China Region David Wong, who also noted that the insurer had nearly 460,000 clients last year, a rise of 60,000 more compared to the previous year due to the rapid rise seen in the purchasers of the company’s general insurance plans. The insurer also eyes a double-digit increase in its premium income for this year, where the proportion of sales of investment-linked assurance scheme (ILAS) products will maintain at 20 per cent, according to Mr. Wong. Despite the Hong Kong insurance authority tightening ILAS sales procedures since the start of this year, FWD still believes in an increasing demand for the investment-linked products due to a robust performance of equity markets seen recently, Mr. Wong said. FWD, the insurance business arm of the private investment group Pacific Century Group, had a team of 1,828 insurance agents last year, a figure which the insurer hopes to grow to 3,000 by 2018. Last year, sales of insurance plans generated by FWD’s own agents occupied 45 per cent of the group’s business, with another 40 per cent from bank insurances and the remaining 15 per cent through insurance brokers. Mr. Wong noted yesterday that the insurer is targeting an equal one-third proportion from these three sales channels in future. When asked whether the anti-graft policies in Mainland China would affect the group’s business from high-end clients, the insurer’s Hong Kong and Macau chief responded that the well-developed system of insurance plan sales in Hong Kong was still appealing to Mainland clients. Currently, Mainland clients account for over 20 per cent of the insurer’s new clients. S.L.