China Taiping launches life insurance business in Singapore

SINGAPORE (Jan 8): After opening its first office in Singapore in 1938, China Taiping Insurance Singapore (CTIS) on Tuesday launched its life insurance business here.

CTIS is a unit of China-based China Taiping Insurance Holdings Company, which is listed in Hong Kong.

As part of the launch, CTIS is offering two products.

The first product is i-Save, which was launched on Jan 2 and comprises a $30 million tranche. For a minimum of $20,000, i-Save offers a 3-year single premium savings plan that provides a guaranteed return at maturity of 2.38% per annum.

The second product is i-Wealth Builder, which is an 8-year savings plan providing six annual guaranteed cashbacks with two years premium payment. The endowment plan also guarantees 100% of total premiums paid, with returns of up to 3.2% per annum, upon maturity of the policy.

In late Feb, CTIS also plans to launch a single premium whole life par plan for retirement.

Initially, CTIS plans to distribute its products through financial advisors, international brokers and banks. Partners include Phillip Capital, and the local branches of Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The customer segment is likely to be the mass affluent segment and high net worth individuals.

In response to queries from The Edge Singapore, CTIS general manager Lance Tay says exclusive bancassurance partnerships with the Singapore banks would depend on the price. The company has around 140 staff and is still studying whether to build up an agency sales force.

“We don’t rule out that we might have some form of sales channel under CTIS. It could be a sales team or the acquisition of a financial advisory firm,” Tay says.

CTIS’ mainland Chinese parent has a sales force of 400,000 and is China’s fourth-largest insurer by premiums.