Bank, insurer team up

Last Updated on 10 January 2013 By Anne Renzenbrink

Barry Stowe, the chief executive of Prudential Corporation Asia, speaks to the Post yesterday in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post Prudential Cambodia Life Assurance, which launched operations in the Kingdom yesterday, has established a long-term strategic distribution partnership with Cambodias largest retail and commercial bank, ACLEDA the first partnership of its kind in Cambodia. ACLEDA Bank would provide its customers with access to Prudentials products through its network of 238 branches and offices in Cambodia, a press release said. Prudential staff sales staff trained and certified by us will be stationed in ACLEDA Bank branches and will be serving the customers of ACLEDA Bank by advising them on the lifeinsurance product and selling the products to them. Thats how the partnership works, Pankaj Banerjee, the chief executive of Prudential Cambodia, told the Post yesterday. In Channy, president and CEO of ACLEDA Bank said: [We] look forward to meeting the growing life-insurance needs of our customers. Prudential Cambodia Life Assurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential Corporation Asia, is the third player in Cambodias nascent life-insurance industry.

Cambodias first life-insurance company, Cambodian Life, was launched in May of last year. The company is 51 per cent government-owned, with the remaining ownership divided among four insurance companies, the Post reported. Canada-based Manulife began operating in Cambodia in June last year. According to Barry Stowe, the chief executive of Prudential Corporation Asia, the life-insurance industry in the Kingdom is in its formative stages but has huge growth potential. Its growth potential is enormous, spurred by economic growth of about six per cent per annum, a young population of about 15 million people, high savings rates, a rapidly emerging middle class and a growing appreciation of financial products, Stowe said. ACLEDA Bank has 238 branches and offices in Cambodia, 28 in Laos and one branch in Myanmar. Prudential Corporation Asia, part of the UK-based Prudential, now has life-insurance operations in 13 markets in Asia. Prudential is listed on the London, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York stock exchanges.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anne Renzenbrink at anne.renzenbrink@phnompenhpost.com

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