Etiqa Life Insurance (Cambodia) Plc is offering balanced protection and wellness plans for all segments that are delivered through its digital channels and bank partner Maybank Cambodia – which is part of Malaysia’s top financial services provider Maybank Group. CEO Horng Vuthy shares the company’s vision for the Kingdom.

What is Etiqa Cambodia’s plan in the Kingdom?

Etiqa’s purpose is that we want to make the world a better place by putting the interests of our customers and communities first, by providing protection and wellness offerings to as many people as possible.

Our plan in Cambodia is obviously to provide financial protection solutions to as many families as we can in ways that are fast and easy.

Currently, through our partnership with Maybank Cambodia, we continue to promote customer awareness of the importance of life insurance as a tool for saving and protection. Over the past six months we have witnessed strong growth as economic activities recover and Covid-19 pandemic eases, with more customers beginning to understand and buy our products.

Our longer term plan is to become a leading life insurer providing innovative and inclusive financial protection solutions to the market, which is in line with the government’s financial inclusiveness strategy. We will achieve this by leveraging on our strong experience in distributing insurance products via digital channels.

Etiqa Group is also championing an environmental, social and corporate governance – ESG – agenda that makes sense to the local context. In Cambodia in the coming years we will actively promote ESG awareness and seek our partners to further the ESG agenda in Cambodia.

How will Etiqa take advantage of its position as a regional player?

Being a regional player allows us to cross-share best practices that have shown to serve our customers and communities well. It’s worthwhile to note that Etiqa Life in Cambodia is managed 100 per cent by Cambodian management and staff. This allows us to combine regional best practices with a deep understanding of local needs to deliver the right protection and wellness offerings.

What products will the company promote widely?

Our unique product solutions, My Future, with Saving Booster Rider, and Premier Saver have proven to be very popular with our customers as they meet their saving, protection and retirement needs. We will continue to make these solutions available to more customers, working very closely with Maybank Cambodia and through our digital channels.

Who is your target market?

Initially our target market is the emerging affluent segment of our population. As our digital platforms grow in maturity we are increasingly in a position to reach a more mass-market customer base effectively and efficiently. We aim to achieve this through both organic implementation and collaboration with strategic partners.

By organic implementation, we mean to utilise our own technology and systems to engage, excite and eventually distribute the solutions that our customers [need]. Strategic collaboration allows us to tap into customer bases of our partners and avail them of the expanded product offerings.

What additional edge has Etiqa to position itself as a key player in this competitive market?

Becoming the life insurer of choice demands a lot of things to go right and all the time in our customers’ eyes. We believe our edge lies in our ability to keep things fast and easy for our customers, and it takes a well-oiled organisation to deliver that.

How do you rate the Cambodian life insurance market?

The life insurance market in Cambodia has so much potential. You are looking at the still very low penetration rate of less than one per cent. Etiqa commits to work very closely with our regulator – the Insurance Regulator of Cambodia – to promote awareness of the importance of life insurance in the Kingdom.

I would also like to add that our regulator has been working tirelessly to continuously enhance the regulatory frameworks to allow the industry to grow even more strongly so that many more Cambodian families will get the financial protection they seriously need. Our regulator’s efforts are truly commendable.