Ceylinco Life builds on its momentum in 2021 despite pandemic, other challenges

Ceylinco Life Chairman R. Renganathan (left) and Managing Director Thushara Ranasinghe

Using the lessons of 2020 and its ethos of converting challenges to opportunities, Sri Lanka’s life insurance leader achieved solid business performance in Year two of the global pandemic while fulfilling all its obligations and commitments to customers, employees, shareholders, the community and the planet, say Ceylinco Life’s Chairman R. Renganathan and Managing Director Thushara Ranasinghe in this interview. Excerpts:

Q: The concluded year can be described as Year 2 of the global pandemic. How did Ceylinco Life fare?

A: Renganathan: The challenges posed by the pandemic were exacerbated by the economic issues confronting the country, making 2021 as difficult or even more difficult than 2020 for businesses in Sri Lanka. That said, the first year of the pandemic provided us an opportunity to fine-tune our crisis responses and innovate to make the company even more agile and flexible. Ceylinco Life’s culture of converting challenges into opportunities was much evidence in both 2020 and 2021, and our financial results show that we have not only grown, but maintained our market leadership for the 18th consecutive year, despite the non-conducive external environment. We recorded Gross Written Premium of Rs. 25.5 billion in 2021, which was a 15.8% growth over 2020. Furthermore, our Life Fund grew by 12% to Rs. 119 billion.

Q: Looking back on 2021, what would you consider as the highlights of the year?

A: Ranasinghe: It was quite a busy year, during which the company won several prestigious awards, exceeded its obligations to policyholders and other stakeholders including employees, invested in expansion and continued all its community and sustainability commitments as well as customer rewards programmes. One of the highlights that demonstrates the strength of Ceylinco Life was the launch of two ground-breaking new products in 2021 – Education Protector and Future Saver – that are extremely market responsive. It could be said therefore that it was a year of many highlights, underlining the fact that Ceylinco Life maintained its momentum in 2021, despite the pandemic.

Q: Could you elaborate on the two new products you referred to?

A: Ranasinghe: Future Saver is a new paradigm life insurance product that offers protection as well as wealth accumulation, with an emphasis on the latter. It creates a Wealth Accumulation Fund built on monthly dividend rates declared by the Company for the Basic Premium paid by a policyholder, part of which funds a life insurance policy, while the balance accumulates in the Fund. 

The Wealth Fund component is carefully managed by professional investment managers who ensure that it grows each month, enabling policyholders to develop an attractive saving at maturity to achieve future goals such as retirement or children’s education, while enjoying the protection offered by the life policy. Ceylinco Life Future Saver is designed to enable policyholders to plan for long-term goals by passionately saving for a short period during which their financial stability is at its peak. 

This unique concept of long-term protection for a short-term commitment makes it a standout product, offering protection for up to 25 years or more, for premium payments over five or 10 years, based on the policyholder’s capacity and wealth accumulation aspirations.

The second product, Ceylinco Life Education Protector, is an insurance plan designed exclusively for the purpose of ensuring the continued education of children.  It enables a parent to, with just a single one-time premium payment, secure the future education prospects of a child in the event of his or her inability to do so due to death or total and permanent disability.

This product is a response to one of society’s most pressing concerns, of preventing the disruption of children’s education in times of crisis and economic hardship. Parents who want to secure the future education of their children with Ceylinco Life Education Protector can choose a monthly benefit cover ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,000 that will be provided to the child continuously for a period of two to 12 years to meet education expenses including school fees, tuition fees, books and stationery costs, in case of the demise or total and permanent disability of the policyholder.

Q: You also mentioned several awards won in 2021?

A: Renganathan: Yes, it was a year of multiple awards, some which were presented in 2021, and others that we received in the first quarter of 2022 in respect of our achievements in 2021. For example, Ceylinco Life was crowned Sri Lanka’s Service Brand of the Year across all categories at the SLIM Brand Excellence awards, was voted the Most Popular Life Insurance Company at the SLIM Kantar Peoples Awards, won four awards - Excellence in Corporate Governance and Strategy – Gold, Excellence in Environmental Sustainability – Silver, Gold in the Insurance Sector and Bronze in the Extra Large Category at the National Business Excellence Awards and was ranked among the 10 Best Workplaces in Sri Lanka’s Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector by Great Place to Work. 

This was in addition to being adjudged the most valuable life insurance brand in Sri Lanka by Brand Finance, being named one of the 10 most admired companies in the country by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka in collaboration with CIMA, being voted the most popular service provider in the life insurance sector by LMD magazine, and declared the best life insurer in Sri Lanka by World Finance for the eighth consecutive year. 

Additionally, our 2020 Annual Report won a Silver at the CA Sri Lanka Annual Report Awards and was adjudged one of the 10 best integrated reports by CMA Sri Lanka. As you can see from this, the challenges of the year were not allowed to impede our momentum in the slightest.

Q: In terms of expansion, what did Ceylinco Life achieve in 2021?

A: Ranasinghe: As you know, Ceylinco Life has been acquiring land in many parts of the country for its branch network, as well as an investment strategy. Building branches on company-owned land allows us to design and equip the buildings to operate as eco-friendly branches that promote sustainability. 

We continued with this approach in 2021, opening new Green branches at Negombo and Piliyandala and laying the foundations stones for more such branches at Matale and Ja-Ela. Besides our head office in Colombo, we now own about 30 buildings that house branches in diverse parts of the country.

Q: Overall, what is Ceylinco Life most proud of in respect of 2021?

A: Renganathan: I think there are many aspects that we can be proud of, but to me the most significant is our ability to remain true to our core values and sustain our consistency in terms of commitment to policyholders and the community, while maintaining the impetus of our growth. This was demonstrated by our ability to continuously adapt to the changing external environment to grow our business despite the pandemic-linked disruptions, while effectively responding to the needs of our customers without depriving them of the generosity Ceylinco Life is known for.

We continued to reward the loyalty of policyholders under the Ceylinco Life Family Savari program, we presented Pranama scholarships to high achieving young Sri Lankans, we built and donated classrooms to needy Sri Lankan schools and we supported several government hospitals with donations of essential equipment. Additionally, we conducted all our employee training and recognition programmes. In short, pandemic notwithstanding, it was business as usual in 2021, in true Ceylinco Life style.