One of Singapore's biggest banks, United Overseas Bank (UOB), yesterday announced that it had signed an agreement to renew its strategic regional bancassurance arrangement with the UK's Prudential Group for 15 years.
UOB will collect a fee of S$1.15bn ($850.5m) that will be accrued over the life of the bancassurance arrangement, the bank said in a statement. The agreement extends the bancassurance partnership to the year 2034 and increases the geographical scope to a new and fifth market, Vietnam.
Under the arrangement, the UOB Group will thus distribute the Prudential Group's life insurance products to its consumer banking customer base in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The bancassurance arrangement leverages UOB Group’s regional franchise, its omnichannel network and Prudential’s product capabilities to offer protection and wealth solutions to meet the fast-growing and changing needs of consumers across these markets.
Mr Wee Ee Cheong, deputy chairman and group CEO of UOB, said the renewed agreement reflects the long-term approach and success of this partnership since 2010. He said, “UOB is focused on creating financial solutions in the best interests of customers and which are essential to their lifestyles and life stages. We believe that our continued partnership with Prudential will create greater value for our customers and our stakeholders across the region and reinforces our position as the premier ASEAN bank.”
Mr Mike Wells, group CEO of Prudential, said, “We have built a highly effective bancassurance partnership with our colleagues at UOB that has driven double-digit annual sales and new business profit growth since 2010. The extended partnership provides UOB’s growing customer base with continued access to Prudential’s market-leading and innovative product suite, and demonstrates our commitment to fulfilling the evolving savings and protection needs of consumers. We believe there is a significant opportunity for future growth in Southeast Asia and the renewal reflects our commitment to using our capabilities to benefit our customers and shareholders.”
UOB is a leading bank in Asia with a global network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. In Asia, UOB operates through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as branches and representative offices across the region.