Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has revamped its bancassurance business model by isolating insurance product distribution activities from teller counters with an aim of meeting customer demand and improving service quality at traditional branches.
Some 2,000 personal bankers will take up the role of financial advisers to provide personal financial plans and management service. They will also be expected to sell insurance products at nearly 1,200 SCB branches across the country, said Salisa Hanpanich, executive vice-president of the wealth product division.
The bankers have tablets equipped with its i-Plan program for insurance product transactions.
Tellers are to focus on banking transactions going forward and will no longer be required to sell insurance products to customers at bank branches, she said.
The bank has also set up a new team, SBC Care Team, since May, to take responsibility for after-sales service of bancassurance business.
SCB Care Team helps customers with issues related to insurance claims and take care of them if they are admitted to hospital. SCB Care Team comprises 15 of the bank's full-time staff, so they are more readily available to customers than traditional sales agents. The team covers around 20,000 bancassurance accounts.
"Even though the number of staff is quite small compared with customer accounts, they manage to cover the accounts because of the low number of claims. The claim rate is typically around 1-2% of total accounts per year," she said.
Ms Salisa said the business model revamp is in line with the changing customers' requirements and the Bank of Thailand's new regulatory controls about distribution through bancassurance channels to comply with code of conduct requirements. The bank will concentrate on protection products rather than saving insurance.
SCB, the country's second largest lender by assets, aims to increase protection insurance ratio to 30% by next year from 20%.
The bank expects to maintain growth of both total premium and revenue of bancassurance business this year, she said, without revealing the figures.
SCB shares closed Friday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 149 baht, up 50 satang, in trade worth 806 million baht.
