Rising Interest In Takaful Products Will Benefit Insurance Industry On Whole

By Mohd Khairi Idham Amran

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Bernama) -- The rising interest in Takaful (Islamic insurance) products would benefit the insurance industry on the whole as it will garner more customers, especially in the lowly penetrated Malay market.

Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) Khadijah Abdullah said the Takaful business would complement the conventional insurance business, which has seen a slight slowdown in recent years.

Takaful will provide an option to the public, she said.

At the end of the day, people would go for either the conventional or Takaful business, as "we are all in the same industry," she told Bernama on the sideline of the Malaysia Million Dollar Roundtable Day 2011 (MDRT Day 2011) opening ceremony, here today.

The event, co-organised by the MII and MDRT Communication Committee, was officiated by MDRT's country chairman Mohamad Manmohan Abdullah.

Last year, the Takaful industry's assets in Malaysia was valued at RM14.7 billion, accounting for 8.7 per cent of the combined asset base of the conventional and Takaful industries.

Currently, there are 16,277 Takaful agents and 122,513 conventional insurance agents in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Malaysia MDRT Day 2011 was aimed to prepare local insurance agents to excel in their career by providing a platform for knowledge sharing between successful insurance agents and the participants.

Themed "Sparking Change", the conference, the first endeavour by the MII and MDRT Communication Committee, addressed critical issues and key challenges currently faced by insurance agents locally and globally.

The conference attracted 1,500 participants from the country's insurance industry.

-- BERNAMA

Source : http://finance.bernama.com/news.php?id=603019