On September 2010, Bank Negara Malaysia, being the insurance and takaful regulator, issued four new takaful licenses on top of the current eight takaful operators in Malaysia. GE Takaful was the first to launch followed by AIA AFG Takaful. The third one was ING PUBLIC Takaful Ehsan Berhad (Takaful Ehsan) officially launched on 5 April, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Takaful Ehsan is also the 11th. takaful operator in Malaysia. The strength in Takaful Ehsan lies in it's shareholders which are two strong household brand names i.e. ING and Public Bank. Both are leading players in life insurance and financial institutions, respectively. Obviously, Takaful Ehsan will leverage on it's strong shareholders by embarking on agency and bancatakaful as it's main distribution channels. Besides, Takaful Ehsan is also expected to capitalize on the medical service provider from ING being the no. 1 in medical service provider in Malaysia.
Takaful Ehsan aspires to be a low cost producer via "lean and mean" strategy for it's human capital. This is possible through the shared services agreement with ING on critical areas such as IT, Underwriting, Call Center, Risk Management, Investment, etc. With the shared services or outsourcing arrangement, Takaful Ehsan may utilise it's resources towards market penetration whilst back-end is mainly supported by experienced and well trained ING personnel. Time spent to develop the system and operational procedures are shortened. Various ready made templates and modules are ready for customization to suit with the need of Takaful Ehsan.
Takaful Ehsan has also managed to secure reasonable business from day 1 operation which may support the significant initial expenses in setting up the company. It is forecasted to capture a total 1st year contribution of RM31 million and increase significantly in the next 5 years for a total CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of more than 50%. This is a remarkable annual growth rate and if maintained Takaful Ehsan may become one of the market leader in the next 5-10 years to come.
Another significant strategy of Takaful Ehsan is to embark on Global Market Penetration strategy after 3 years in operation. This is in tandem with the government aspiration to encourage local players to tap into global market. Takaful Ehsan may leverage on it's multinational shareholder, ING, where they have presence in several global market such as middle east, hong kong, India, etc. TE needs to strengthen it's local infrastructure and market penetration and export it's expertise to international market via it's shareholders.
Takaful Ehsan hopes to compliment other takaful players in increasing the local Moslem market penetration and subsequently export the expertise to acquire significant business from global market.
