Malaysia Insurance Online

Skim Amanah Rakyat 1Malaysia | Available 30th January 2012

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:57:28 +0000

Introducing the latest SKIM AMANAH RAKYAT (SARA) 1MALAYSIA The Malaysian government has just launched the Skim Amanah Rakyat (SARA) 1Malaysia, which is offering a 32.16% return per annum on your investment…. something too good to be true perhaps that’s what you would be thinking. You probably wouldn’t be able to find any investment vehicles in the market right now providing such a high return on investment. How does this scheme works? SARA 1Malaysia is a hybrid of a unit trust investment and a loan product aimed at encouraging low-income earners to save and invest. ↑ Grab this Headline Animator 1. Invest with your own money. The investment is limited to RM5,000 per household and you will receive a dividend of RM134 every month for the next 5 years. In this case, the effective rate of return is more than 30% per annum! 2. Invest with a bank loan (You can take up a a maximum of RM5,000 loan) In this case you will still receive a dividend of RM134 every month for the next 5 years but here the bank loan monthly repayment of RM84 needs to be deducted, nevertheless you would still get to enjoy a profit of RM50. The good thing [...]

Roles of Insurance Agents | Rules and Regulations Perspectives

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:47:48 +0000

Are you an insurance agent? Do you know what your roles are in as far as the governing laws are concerned? This may be of interest to you. Insurance agents must take their role as contracted personnel of an insurer and that someone who solicits and connects a policyholder with the insurer. Therefore the agent has a contractual responsibility to both insurer and policyholder and their representation has heavy legal weightage. The Malaysian Insurance Act 1996 prescribed an “insurance agent” to mean a person who does all or any of the following: (a) solicits or obtains a proposal for insurance on behalf of an insurer; (b) offers or assumes to act on behalf of an insurer in negotiating a policy; or (c) does any other act on behalf of an insurer in relation to the issuance, renewal, or continuance, of a policy The Insurance Act in respect to the formation of an insurance contract, in particular section 151 (1), (2) & (3) on Knowledge of, and Statement by, Insurance Agent, clearly stipulates that the role of an agent is binding by law. Thus, it is imperative agents make it their business to learn and understand what’s being prescribed in [...]

2012 New Motor Insurance Premium Framework | Motor Insurance Online

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:43:11 +0000

New Motor Insurance Premium Framework | How are your motor insurance premium computed and How much more are you going to pay for your motor insurance in 2012? Get the answers here…. In case you do not know, starting this 16th January 2012 the Malaysian Insurance industry will be imposing some small increases to your existing motor insurance premium. These prescribed increases are applicable for the year 2012 but with gradual increases till 2016 when the motor insurance premium structure would by then be liberalised. Don’t worry about the increases, these are really very small amount and in the process would enable customers to purchase their insurance requirements with much ease. Here are the schedules of the premium increases, applicable whether you are purchasing comprehensive, third party fire & theft or third party insurances. The additional premium listed are subject to both loading and no-claim-bonus discount. However these are NOT applicable for purchases made at Malaysia Motor Insurance Pool (MMIP). If you are an agent or insurance practitioner you may opt-in for the more detailed premium framework below…. GET YOUR NEW MOTOR INSURANCE FRAMEWORK ONLINE TODAY First Name: Email address: Last Name: State: Premium Differences (Extra Premium per vehicle) between existing & new Motor Tariff 2012 (similarly [...]

2011 Bank Negara Malaysia’s Guidelines & Circulars | Malaysia Insurance News

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:44:50 +0000

Auld Lang Syne 2011 and Happy New Year 2012! We are arriving at the doorsteps of 2012, so Malaysia Insurance Online wishes to thank you guys for faithfully arriving at our site in 2011 and hope you guys would be likewise doing so faithfully for the new year 2012. But, please do it with zest and be active commenting on the blogposting…. as we need feedbacks for further improvement. Taking this opportunity we have some GUIDELINES, CIRCULARS & some CONCEPT PAPERS issued (or amended) by Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) in 2011 posted here for your reading pleasure. Hopefully you will find them useful, especially for agents and independent insurance practitioners…. We cannot post any of the BNM’s attachments here for reasons you already knew, however, if you seriously require them do register your interest below or email us directly. And…. DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK ONTO OUR ADVERTISEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THIS PORTAL. Guidelines to Responsible Financing Effective Date The Guidelines : 1 January 2012 Paragraph 6.18 : 18 November 2011 Paragraphs 8.2, 8.3 & 8.4 : To both new and existing customers by 1 July 2012 Paragraph 8.6 : Payment allocation requirement for financing products other than credit [...]

Salary Increment in 2012 | The Malaysian Perspectives

malaysiainsurance — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:07:50 +0000

Salary Review and Promotion for the Insurance and Takaful Industry – Predicting it for 2012 Reviewing some of my previous writeup on salary increment and promotion, did some serious checks on market salary (+pay package) comparison lately and having gone through an extensive appraisal review recently on staff performance I think I can further add on to what’s to come for the year 2012. And that’s on top of those writeups available over the web currently…. “Do you think a 4% to 7% increment for 2012 is reasonable? Why?” Most of the organisations involving with Human Resource functions are quick to point out an average increment of 4% to 7% for 2012 payscale (do note this is in respect of Malaysian payscale and is for all major industry), an indication of a much higher increment compared to what’s available back in 2011 and 2010. However these organisations were quick to point out the much lower bonus payout for 2011 and also likelihood for 2012. I am not going to name those organisations though, it would be best if you could google the web for some insight…. It is also good to note that this relatively higher average increment is also results of companies factoring adjustments for cost-of-living expenses. The Increment Aspects The recent [...]

Overseas Insurance Coverage | Overseas Locations and Contingency Business Interruptions

malaysiainsurance — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:41:24 +0000

Is your company providing coverage extension for overseas location? What about extension for Customers’ premises and Suppliers’ premises in respect of Business Interruption or Consequential Loss Insurance cover? The recent massive flooding in Thailand has caused havoc to reinsurers operating within the region. Expected insurable losses amounted to some USD19.5 billion (Thailand’s Office of Insurance Commission). Issues relating to Solvency Margin and Inadequacy Capital Many Thai insurers are already facing solvency problem with shares prices tumbling. Some of the major reinsurers are also facing capital adequacy ratio (CAR) issues, at least two of those reinsurers licensed under the Malaysian Insurance Act were required by the authority to top up their paid-up capital in order to meet the SCAR and ICAR. CCR, a French reinsurer has officially issued circular pulling out from the Thai New Zealand and the Australian markets. An Overview Of 2011 – A Massive Thailand Flooding Flood cover is no longer an automatic inclusion in any of the Thai insurers’ insurance policy…. as of now. Reinsurers are now putting flood extension under scrutiny as they do not want to have any event relapse subsequent to the recent one. Many commented that this flooding event was really a country problem that the Thai government [...]

Insurance Companies: Putting Generalists Above Specialists for Technology Transformation Project

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Insurance Companies and Takaful Operators | In Technology Transformation Project I read K. Ram Sundaram’s article on Why It Is Important To Put Generalists Above Specialists for Your Technology Transformation Project at Insurance & Technology website with interest for I tend to think there are elements of truth to what he had opined in that article. Let me rewrite certain part of his article and perhaps with some of his quotable quotes from the perspectives of my own experience dealing with the execution of major IT system implementation…. Fine-grained specialists are often uniquely qualified to support and maintain the carrier’s status quo Information Technology (IT) platforms. Unfortunately, they are also just as uniquely unqualified to manage and execute a major upgrade or change to those platforms. Having sat through last week meeting to discuss the replacement of the company’s existing core backend system that everyone was fast to determine that the system has reached its limit and unlikely for it to achieve newer things in time to come. Usually IT personnel don’t tell the decision makers as to the exact reasons for the change for much of those reasons given were more along the following lines of argument: The system is already old and running on a 3rd generation (3GL) platform thus it [...]

Insurance Companies Snooping on Twitter and Facebook Accounts?

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:54:53 +0000

In US and Europe markets it is already a common thing for insurers to check various information of individual by “snooping” on to the social media platforms as a form of intelligence gathering. Insurers use of social media for anti-fraud purposes is no more a violation of privacy than the way other companies use such information for marketing and other purposes. The problem is that the concept of what is public and private has changed, and technical advances have outstripped the way people think about what is public and what is private. What individuals choose to share publicly is their prerogative and once shared it is very difficult to argue on gounds of invasion of privacy. “Getting worried over your twitter and facebook accounts being snooped upon?” However, as of now snooping on our social media postings is not a norm so no worry but we may not know for sure…. Hope the following video makes great viewing perhaps picking up a point or two….

Buying Your Motor Insurance with Passenger Liability Extension Cover?

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:30:36 +0000

This posting is about Legal Liability to Passengers (LLP) or in simple term, “Passenger Liability” – talks about what’s being covered and what’s not, including the insurers’ obligation under the Road Transport Act (RTA) to cover passenger liability in identified situation and circumstances. When I first wrote a posting on Passenger liability: Your kids are not covered……. a year ago little did I know there would be more than 1,600 over hits on this. There were lots more comments than the 21 comments found on that posting. Many people including agents emailed directly to my inbox for clarification including feeling cheated…. by the no liability cover to family members while traveling as passengers. I guess people are now realising that their family members, especially their kids are not covered while they are traveling as passengers in their car despite having purchased a passengers’ liability (or legal liability to passengers) extension cover. Many were amazed that despite purchasing the Legal Liability to Passenger (LLP) extension cover, the coverage is actually worse off than the basic coverage! Even if this is not an issue the difficulty in understanding the coverage and exclusion part of legal liability to passengers within the [...]

What is Sanction Limitation and Exclusion Clause? What are the Implications?

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:59:27 +0000

The Sanction Clause as what Malaysian insurers called it has effectively found its place in the industry on 1st April 2011. What exactly is this Sanction Limitation and Exclusion Clause or Sanction Clause in short? This Sanction Clause had on 1st April 2011 found its place in the Malaysian insurance industry especially where marine related policies were concerned. Most foreign insurers seemed to have steadfastly adopted this clause in particularly Japanese dominant insurers, however, most local dominant insurers then were spared from this Clause simply because most of their treaty reinsurance leaders (especially those Malaysian owned reinsurers) were prepared to give leeways for not inserting this as part of the treaty programme. However after 1st July this year the adoption of Sanctions Clause seems to have reached another milestone, most Cargo insurance policies issued to international shipments are now slammed with the clause. What cause the Clause adoption to spread throughout the Malaysian markets? Simply put, Malaysian reinsurers that hold sizeable shares of the local reinsurance market are now slapped with the Sanction Clause when their retrocession programme came up for renewal this year – meaning, the flexibility to waive in the past is no longer there. The foreign reinsurers operating in the country saw the opportunity and sealed [...]

An Insurance Dilemma in Non-disclosure, Misrepresentation or Concealment of Material Facts

vkliew — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:56:13 +0000

Issues of non-disclosure, concealment or misrepresentation of Material Facts A common confrontational piece between insurer and assured - in the guise of non-disclosure, misrepresentation or concealment of material facts, which in this case (outlined below) under discussed here was about the health aspects of the life assured. She bought the insurance without declaring that she has anemia….. there was no medical checkup since sum assured was below the threshold. She subsequently passed away due to a heart attack, nothing to do with anemia….. but happened after less than a year from the date of contract the insurance cover. The insurer threw the claim out for non-disclosure and may even consider reporting the son for intention to defraud. Of course the son argued that her mother’s nemia condition had nothing to do with heart attack that was the actual cause of her death. Read the August 26th article below… Are the underwriters able to identify possible non-disclosure of this anemic condition based on the information as provided in the proposal form if they did indeed put in the effort? Shouldn’t the insurance company examine her before contracting the life cover? The amount was RM200,000 and it is not unusual for the company to insist on a medical examination for a simple [...]

Safety Supervisor, made compulsory for construction site

vkliew - blogging from land below the wind — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:24:16 +0000

It is welcome news for the insurance industry that Site Safety Supervisor is a requirement at construction sites. No doubt this should improve safety at site for workers specifically and ensure safety for the public in general but unsure how this implementation could improve claim ratios for insurer in respect of Contractor’s All Risks, Erection All Risks, or construction plant & machinery Insurance policy. Site Safety Supervisors are definitely not going to be concern of indiscriminate digging, safety designs, suitability of architectural, whether correct technology is being utilised….or whatever! Their focus is more of immediate safety of the workers on site, and really not so much about securing the properties at site that insurers are more concerned of. Anyway they are certain to be junior staff category – not privy to a lot of technical and management stuff….therefore also not decision makers as well. So, how the heck they are going to improve things for insurers at site? Nevertheless, despite whatever shortfalls it should be a good starting point for all – as insurers we have one more pair of eyes on safety at site, at least to ensure no fire and explosion, no storage of combustible and harmful materials [...]

Overseas Tax on Reinsurance Premium ceded to Foreign Reinsurers

vkliew — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 04:28:23 +0000

Overseas tax applicable on reinsurance premium This writeup is really for those who are engaged in reinsurance functions; treaty and facultative alike. It is normal for us to charge a 1.25% (back in 2007 and before we charged 1.40%) on the amount of premium reinsured to foreign insurers. We were so used to imposing this tax levy whenever we have dealings with foreign reinsurers, unless they have a branch licensed to operate within Malaysia – like Munich Re and Swiss Re, with the transactions booked at the said branch…. Conveniently we understand this as tax matter and therefore a domain of our Finance department…. we gave no thoughts to it until we received a request from a fresh-faced foreign reinsurer to enlighten them as to such an application. You see… this reinsurer has a domestic branch but the treaty was contracted with their Head Office domiciled in Europe with their Singapore branch mentioned as the managing office. Their Malaysian office played no part in the operations of the contract, save for those prescribed downstream activities…. which also have nothing to do with the reinsurance contract. Upon checking with the finance department we then realised they too did not quite remember which part [...]

National Insurance Assists for Motor Insurance Policyholders

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:51:36 +0000

National Motor Insurance Assists for all to be set up under the New National Motor Insurance Framework? Setting up a National Motor Insurance Claims Assists Center for the purpose of providing prompt services immediately at the time of accident…. Perhaps this is a great idea or maybe just something the industry needs to do to get some small increases in Motor Insurance premium come 2012? Couple of days ago Telekom Malaysia made a presentation to PIAM attended by numerous committee members representing the Motor sub-comm and the Claims sub-comm as well staffs from both ISM and PIAM. It was a RM6.8 million (payable over a period of 5 years) proposal on a claims response center setup for the industry. As usual this does not include various incidental charges along the way. The centre is in a nutshell proposed to cater for: emergency response engagements filtering crank calls a linkup to ISM database for acquiring Insured’s vehicle details and insurer related info diverting filtered calls to identified insurer(s)’ own Road Assist for despatch of tow truck and accident assistance to scene of accident provide geolocation information including compiling relevant accident related info for downstream claims handling and investigation A RM6.8m system for doing small [...]

My Motor Insurance Cancelled Without My Knowledge

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:34:04 +0000

Letters to the EDITOR @ New Straits Times I read the following letter with interest, therefore I have to put in some comments…. The following are some main pointers we can zoom into: The policy was cancelled with forged authorisation and the party who did it has no reason doing so…. that’s what was being perceived…. No notification was ever served on Pragasam before the cancellation but is this because the “last known address” was never made known in Pragasam’s application? It took the company more than 5 months to notify Pragasam – was it a case of insurer’s inefficiency or Pragasam was not too traceable? Isn’t the main issue more to do with the importance of the Customer’s Last Known Address? Here the contents of that letter…. NEW STRAITS TIMES – Letters Motor insurance: Company needs to have better verifying procedure 2011/07/15 S. PRAGASAM, Kajang, Selangor letters@nst.com.my| I HAD submitted payment for the renewal of my road tax and insurance through my car agent in mid-January and received my road tax sticker and cover note within a week. Just last week, my agent called me to collect a cheque from his office. I assumed it to be a refund [...]

Legalise Illegal Foreign Workers With Insurance Assists

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:45:04 +0000

348 agents to process illegal foreign workers‘ applications for the purpose of legalising them in a biometric-system-driven programme or Program 6P And the General Insurance companies and Takaful Operators are going to be a part of these 348 agents….. But is this a strategic move for the industry? First of all, isn’t this some BREAKING NEWS for the industry? Or you are asking me…. “You mean the insurers are now able to provide such an amnesty related services to those illegal foreigners….? In Bahasa Malaysia, illegal foreign workers are called PEKERJA-PEKERJA TANPA IZIN (PATI) Apparently this may start soon and as early as in the middle part of July this year, and insurance companies / takaful operators are called to participate, albeitly is on a voluntary basis. The larger insurers with their extensive branch and agency networks are recognised as a more formidable force in getting this “amnesty” message across to all those foreigners residing illegally in all nooks and corners within the country. These foreigners are working on a day-to-day basis, as and when jobs are available for them. The Home Ministry hopes these illegal foreigners are aware of this and immediately make their way to the nearest approved [...]

Market Value for Motor Vehicles

malaysiainsurance — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:14:10 +0000

How To Determine The Market Value of Your Motor Vehicle For Insurance? Check no further…. read this; it is from the Central Bank, The Consumer & Market Conduct Department…. Insurers and Takaful operators must ensure that they (including their agency channel) provide the necessary market value advisory services in respect of advising their customers (those within the CONSUMERS category) on the correct value to insure. Customers should be given the necessary advices along the following lines: the present market value of the motor vehicle – options as they are laid out: which must be based on the industry’s Insurance Services Malaysia – Automobile Business Intelligence (ISM – ABI), ISM – ABIsystem is solely owned by ISM and ISM is a wholly owned company of the insurance industry, where only members owned shares in the company, or any other credible vehicle valuation database system unfortunately there is nothing in regards this “OTHER SYSTEM” allowed by the industry as yet, so this leads to…. an enclosed (or rather monopoly as such….) system in the determination of vehicle’s market value…. – wondered if this posed any issue when the COMPETITION ACT comes into effect in 2012. Merimen and Red Book may complain that [...]

I-G Training Pte Ltd

malaysiainsurance — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:50:45 +0000

I-G Training Pte Ltd (IGT) with its new business model is the new power-house for insurance related training in the South East Asia region. I-G Training Pte Ltd (IGT) is established to provide technical and practical training to the general insurance and reinsurance industry. It is managed by experienced insurance practitioners and well supported by a strong pool of experienced facilitators. IGT is committed to serve the insurance market in Singapore and the region. It provides quality training programmes which are specially designed and developed to build the knowledge and skill-sets of insurance practitioners and professionals. IGT focuses on increasing the technical competency and enhancing the practical experience of middle and senior level insurance executives so as to enable them to add value in their service to their employers by applying what they have learnt to their workplace and by assuming greater roles and responsibilities. “Everything at I-G Training is about the real life experience and regional in outlook…. (learn from the real experts)” IGT’s expertise includes designing curriculum and also training insurance practitioners to effectively impart their knowledge and experience so as to increase the technical competency of insurance executives and managers. Currently IGT is managed by a [...]

Trade Credit Insurance | An Important Trade Receivables Protection

malaysiainsurance — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:57:11 +0000

What does Trade Credit Insurance means to business organisations, in particularly for those that operate in Malaysia? Trade Credit Insurance was developed to provide solutions to inherent risk of buyers defaulting and/or insolvency. Trade Credit Insurance is also a financial risk management tool which covers the losses sustained by a firm because of the non-payment of a trade debt.It is really about according protection to a business organisation’s trade receivables….. The following are highlights of the importance of Trade Credit Insurance and its benefits that companies in Malaysia can enjoy when opting to take up the insurance cover: Strengthening the balance sheet via protecting your receivables against potential loss due to buyer’s risk of defaulting in payment and/or insolvency. During crisis in 2008, we have seen many companies foreclosure or barely could cope with surging expenses due to failure of buyers in making payment that jeopardized the company’s cash flow, assets and liabilities. Affected badly were those prime sector contributors such as Electronics and Electricals, Oil & Gas Industry, etc. Trade credit protection provides shield against these inevitable risks. Credit control procedures by companies may reduce the impact but will not free the inherent risks. While enjoying the comfort and [...]

Insurance Talk Show over at DurianFM.com

malaysiainsurance — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:55:21 +0000

A Podcasting Affair On DurianFM.com….. “Not For Anyone” It is not everyday you get to share your views LIVE over the radio – sharing the various tips and matters of interest with the public on thing concerning insurance…. insurance talk to be exact. Of course we did stray out of the main topics, but that’s according to desire (or was it whim and fancy….) of our host, Andrew Chia the MONEY MAN. Talking about it as Tell It Like It Is….. that’s what we at Malaysia Insurance Online did… on the 14th June 2011. There are three parts in this PODCAST, which we categorised as follow: Current gossips and something about insurance coverage with some deviation going into matters concerning government banning certain files sharing sites to Obedient Wives Club…. and something on SEX and RUB-DOWN The insurance proper and the industry with something on fraudulent acts (perceived) allegedly being carried out by certain parties and Malaysian Motor Insurance Pool (MMIP) recent development The opportunities within the industry – career and doing business as an agent and various aspects concerning leveraging the internet media to improve marketing capabilities…. and something on email marketing and so…. “Tell You Like It Is [...]