Singaporean insurer NTUC Income has made its first overseas forays, with partnerships in three Southeast Asian markets
In a virtual ceremony on Thursday, Income simultaneously signed its alliances with Income PT Central Asia Financial (JAGADIRI) in Indonesia, Post and Telecommunication Joint Stock Insurance Corporation (PTI) in Vietnam and VSure Tech (VSure) in Malaysia.
The partnerships involve Income’s digital insurance-as-a-service (IaaS) model to strengthen its partners’ businesses. According to Income, its partners will benefit from its expertise in digital product innovation and technology.
This comes amid increasing volume of digital transactions in Southeast Asia, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Income predicts that around 80% of the region’s population will become digital consumers by the end of the year.
The market size for digital insurance is projected to reach US$7.6 billion by 2025, according to a study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company. This signals the huge potential of digital financial services in Southeast Asia.
“Our foray overseas opens a new chapter of growth for Income and is a natural next step in our strategic growth plan,” said Andrew Yeo, Income CEO. “The market potential of countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam is huge given their relatively young populations and high mobile penetration rates. Considering their large geographical distribution areas, I believe that these markets are especially primed for new digital insurance propositions that are enabled by technology. The diversity of our regional partners is a testament to the value of our IaaS model and more significantly, signals that Income is well placed to work with any partner in Asia.”
Income said that since it created its Digital Transformation Office four years ago, it has rolled out several new insurance business models such as micro-insurance, subscription insurance and usage-based insurance. These new propositions, the insurer said, bring about new ways of consuming insurance and engaging with customers.
“JAGADIRI, PTI and VSure are well-respected brand names in their respective markets,” said Peter Tay, chief digital officer of Income. “We are honoured to have them on board our IaaS model and look forward to bringing more ground-breaking insurance propositions to delight customers and plug the protection gaps in these markets. Whether it is through our borderless and modular plug-and-play application program interface microservices, product innovations, seamless customer journey design or dynamic pricing capabilities, we are confident that the IaaS model will not just complement, but value add to partners’ existing solutions and strengthen their value propositions in the insurance, broker or insurtech arenas.”
