Great Eastern steps up its takaful plans here
(Business Times, 14th Sep 2009) Singapore life insurance giant Great Eastern Holdings Ltd is putting the final touches to its plans to start takaful operations in Malaysia, with the latest move being the hiring of a top executive to lead the unit.
Sources told Business Times that the insurer had roped in former Prudential BSN Takaful Bhd chief executive officer Mohamad Salihuddin Ahmad to head its future Islamic insurance operations.
The sources said that Salihuddin was hand-picked by Great Eastern Holdings group chief executive officer Ng Keng Hooi.
Ng was Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd (PAMB) chairman and Prudential Corp Asia regional managing director when Salihuddin was appointed to head Prudential BSN Takaful in 2006.
Salihuddin is said to have vacated his post at Prudential BSN Takaful some two months ago. The company has yet to announce his replacement.
“The group under Ng’s leadership has already put in place a project team in Singapore to spearhead the takaful operations,” the sources said.
Ng was the architect of Prudential’s venture into the takaful business, which now makes up almost a third of PAMB’s new business in Malaysia.
Great Eastern Holdings is a front runner to clinch one of two takaful licences to be awarded by Bank Negara Malaysia later this year.
Great Eastern Holdings operates in Malaysia through subsidiary Great Eastern Life Assurance (M) Bhd, but does not have a takaful licence as yet.
The insurer is keen take advantage of several broad changes aimed at liberalising the country’s financial services sector, including greater flexibility for foreign financial institutions to operate in the country and issue of two takaful licences.
Great Eastern Malaysia director and chief executive officer Koh Yaw Hui had said earlier that its strong channels and bancassurance business, through holding company Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (OCBC), would provide it with a strong platform to launch products for the takaful market if it succeeded in securing the licence.
At OCBC’s first quarter results briefing in May, its chief executive David Conner said the further opening of Malaysia’s financial services sector to foreign players would present fresh opportunities to the bank and its subsidiaries.
He had said then that Great Eastern would apply for a takaful licence in Malaysia, while OCBC would be keen to add to the 29 bank branches it has here.