Life made easy
As National Life & General celebrates a major milestone in its ongoing journey, Joseph Benny catches up
with its general manager, S Venkatachalam for a tête-à-tête

The office of National Life & General is a beehive of activity these days. As the company is celebrating 25 years of its operations in Oman it has drawn up big plans for this occasion. Says S Venkatachalam, general manager, “It gives me immense pride to acknowledge that National Life – the first insurer in the Sultanate of Oman is about to complete 25 years in the insurance business. We have a B++ financial strength (good) rating from AM Best Co, the world’s oldest and most authoritative rating agency, and have been certified with ISO 9001:2000 by British Standards Institute (BSI).”

Still going strong
The silver jubilee celebration promises to be good news for customers too. The company is planning to launch a slew of new products to mark the occasion. What gives the company the strength to roll out new products is the loyalty of its customers and the international standards it has been practicing. Besides, as one of the pioneers in the insurance sector the company knows what is hot and what is not in the Sultanate.

Venkatachalam is candid enough to admit that Oman’s insurance sector is complex with a multitude of different firms targeting a particular segment of the market, jostling for market share while navigating a tangle of different rules and regulations. Despite this severe competition, the insurance sector in Oman has been growing at the rate of 18-20 per cent.

National Life is a leader in the life insurance segment in Oman with a market share of 65 per cent. The role played by its product portfolio has been an important contributor to its success in Oman.

The company claims that its product offerings in the life and medical segments are the best in the market. Furthermore, the company has been successful in launching products and services which are tailor-made for the Sultanate’s market. Says Venkatachalam, “We have come a long way in designing products suited to the local market, customising them to fit every strata of society. Over the years, we have strengthened our presence across five fundamental pillars of business – product design, revenue models, operational efficiencies, compliance and best practices and change management.”

Some of the products from the stable of National Life have met with a huge response. The general insurance department, for example, has been a success since its inception two years ago. The money back and savings plus products have met with similar success. The company’s risk-taking ability has been another plus for the company. While others were shying away from the motor insurance sector, National Life entered this segment and reaped rich dividends. The same holds true for its foray into the travel and home insurance segments. While the motor insurance product offerings remain invariably the same across insurers, it is the competitive pricing and claims servicing that differentiates preferred insurers. National Life has invested in technology, operational and process efficiencies and people to strengthen its credibility.

The pricing factor
One of the attractions of National Life products have been their pricing. Says Venkatachalam: “They are reasonably priced and come with a wide coverage. Furthermore, we have a whole new range of products in the pipeline designed specifically for every strata of society, both in life as well as non-life sectors.”

The company offers a vast gamut of products across life and non-life sectors. For individuals it has savings plus, money back, motor, home and travel insurance products. While in the corporate sector it has credit life, group life, fire, marine, and engineering insurance. The company offers the entire range of products for the corporate sector in both domains. Its strong underwriting and reinsurance arrangements help walk that extra mile in customising products specific to each corporate entity.

Currently, in the individual sector, the company has child care savings, education savings, wedding savings, savings plus, money back, term assurance, domestic help and mortgage protection.

Exploring new markets
The company’s experience with bancassurance has yielded good results. In fact, National Life was the first insurance company to launch such a product in the Sultanate. Says Venkatachalam: “We have indeed hit new milestones in revenues in our bancassurance tie-up with BankMuscat. We are infusing additional resources in the current year to take care of our elaborate expansion plans and are gearing to strengthen our market share by leveraging on ‘service and reach’ as key differentiators in the insurance purchase decision.”

The company’s mortgage protection plan provides parallel and dynamic risk protection with a 24-hour world-wide cover. This plan enables one to set aside small sums of money so that outstanding loans can be paid out. This policy has a reducing sum assured based on the term and sum assured chosen. What that means is that as customer’s debt keeps decreasing, the appropriate sum assured also keeps reducing. This way the plan gives him a dynamic risk protection based on the diminishing risk. By the time he has paid his debts, the risk covered by this plan will cease.

Having proved itself in the Sultanate, National Life has entered the Dubai market. The aim to do so was to make its presence felt in the financial hub of the GCC. Says Venkatachalam: “Our network here will help us push our brand equity to a wider audience, build greater scales and bring to customers a wider choice of products closer to their homes.”

Has the ongoing financial meltdown affected Oman? No, because of good regulators, says Venkatachalam. He adds further: “This is indeed the right opportunity for insurance companies to launch products addressing the increasing demand of investors for an option that will provide them a venue to park their money and secure returns in addition to some insurance protection.”

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