Allianz bullish on Sri Lanka’s insurance landscape

• In the process of building core general insurance platform for all of Asia
• Allianz Lanka named best performing company in the region 
• Says market regulations, freedom to innovate on products, pricing is more sophisticated compared to many other countries 
• To address low penetration levels through financial inclusion 

 By Charumini de Silva

Given the strong growth potential, global financial services leader Allianz is bullish on Sri Lanka’s insurance landscape and outlined its plans to make the firm a significant player to drive stronger engagement with its 18 million customers in the Asian region. Allianz’s optimism was revealed by its Asia Pacific Regional CEO George Sartorel in an interview with Daily FT during his recent visit.

“Sri Lanka is a growth engine. We are building the core general insurance platform for all of Asia here in Sri Lanka. We are very much building the future model for insurance and I believe Asia is where we build it,” he noted.

He also said Allianz Lanka had performed outstandingly under its Managing Director Surekha Alles’s leadership and in fact was the best performing company in the region in terms of growth, market share growth, operating profit and combined ratio by far year after year.

“We have a management team that has a track record, that can execute and that can implement. We also have a very attractive market that has a very young average age, which is growing by double digits. I see the opportunities and I am confident of building a world-class business here in Sri Lanka,” Sartorel stated. 

He expressed that in some ways, the market regulations in Sri Lanka were more sophisticated compared to many other countries. 

“There is more free market dynamics going on in here than many other economies, so we are really able to compete on technical excellence, product excellence and customer excellence. However, in a heavily regulated market it is very difficult to compete on these factors, because everybody is the same. There is right amount of regulation, control and freedom to innovate on product and pricing is commendable. I think the prospects are really super for Sri Lanka,” he added.

In addition, with very low penetration levels, he believes there is huge growth potential for the life insurance business. 

Sartorel said they intended to address the low insurance penetration levels by providing products and services that people could afford, even if they had a low income.

“We really believe in financial inclusion and that’s why we build these platforms and get into to digital partnerships; so that we can get some simple protection, simple services down to people that normally don’t get access to insurance. It allows them to get some basic protection, learn about insurance and factor that into their family risk management thinking.”

In terms of differentiating itself in the market, the firm believes in being completely customer centric, investing in digital architecture and providing a better value proposition for its partners and agents.