Allianz & Standard Chartered Bank

German insurer Allianz has teamed up with Standard Chartered Bank for a 15-year bancassurance agreement under which the bank will sell all Allianz’s general insurance products, the two banks jointly announced on Thursday.

The agreement would mean Standard Chartered bank will sell all Allianz products including travel, personal accident, fire and motor insurance products to the bank’s clients in five key markets across Asia including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and mainland China from this year.

Asia’s demand for non-life insurance is expected to grow at 10.8 per cent per annum over the next four years to reach a total market size of approximately US$280 billion by 2020, driven by emerging markets growth and Asia’s rising insurance penetration rates.

“Allianz and Standard Chartered Bank have a lot of common values in terms of services to our customers. We both have invested a lot in technology and our digital platforms. We believe the two firms are a good fit,” Lars Heibutzki, chief distribution officer of Asia Pacific of Allianz, told the South China Morning Post in a telephone interview.

Allianz has also teamed up with several other banks to sell its products across Asia.

“We found banassurance is a very effective way to sell our general insurance products because many bank products are related to insurance demand. For example, a customer who applies for a bank loan to buy a car would need to buy motor insurance. The customer who borrows residential mortgage loans would like to have fire insurance and home content protection policies,” Heibutzki said.

Mainland China recently banned mainlanders from using their credit cards to purchase life insurance policies in Hong Kong. Heibutzki said this would not affect Allianz as the ban mainly affected life insurance policies and not the general insurance products.

“Bancassurance is a key focus for Standard Chartered, as we continue to innovate and expand our offerings that meet the evolving needs of our clients in branches and online,” said Karen Fawcett, chief executive of retail banking of Standard Chartered Bank, in a statement.