AmBank upbeat on fee-based income growth

AMBANK Group expects fee-based income from insurance to grow by 44 per cent to RM39 million for the year ending December 31 2008, its chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim said.

He said fee-based income from bancassurance or selling of insurance products via bank branches was close to RM27 million last year.

The group, which has both life and general insurance business through AmAssurance Bhd and AmG Insurance Bhd respectively, achieved RM368 million in premiums last year.

Azman said for the current accounting year, financial planning will also be core to AmBank Group's bancassurance activities.

"As such, this will be a quantum leap, compared to previous years although steps have been taken towards this direction. In support of this leap, the AmBank Group will launch six to seven new insurance products this financial year," he said at the launch of AmAsia Star Capital Guaranteed Fund in Kuala Lumpur.

In order to gain a healthy premium growth, he said, the role of personal bankers located at the branch network will also be redefined and streamlined to support the financial planning activities for customers.

"With the strong rapport and synergistic co-operation within the AmBank Group, coupled with our strategic partnerships with ANZ Banking Group and the Australian Group Ltd (IAG), valuable knowledge transfers and retail banking expertise from these entities will contribute to the innovative creation of many insurance and financial instruments to benefit Malaysians as a whole," said Azman.

Sydney-based IAG has a 30 per cent stake in AmAssurance Bhd.

IAG recently said it plans to sell its stake in AmAssurance and boost its 30 per cent stake in AmG to 49 per cent, to focus on expanding the general insurance business here.

Meanwhile, the group anticipates returns from AmAsia Star to average between 13-13.5 per cent annually.

The AmAsia Star is a 100 per cent capital guaranteed fund which strategically invests in Asia's emerging markets such as China, South Korea, India, Singapore, Taiwan and others.

AmAsia Star has an authorised fund size of RM200 million. The minimum investment amount is RM5,000 while the minimum additional investment is RM5,000.