BNZ will also forge a 10-year agreement for the referral of its customers with life insurance needs to Partners Life

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Partners Life managing director Naomi Ballantyne. (Credit: Greg Bowker/Greg Bowker Visuals/Partners Life)

National Australia Bank (NAB) has agreed to sell its New Zealand life insurance business BNZ Life to Partners Life for NZ$290m ($206.45m).

Partners Life is a life and health insurance provider in New Zealand.

According to NAB, the transaction is in line with its strategy to concentrate on its core banking businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

BNZ Life CEO Angela Mentis said: “Ensuring BNZ customers continue to access insurance remains important to us. We’re confident that this sale will provide the best outcome for our insurance customers and that they will continue to receive a high standard of customer service from a New Zealand insurance provider with a strong local reputation.”

Partners Life and BNZ Life are said to have maintained a close business partnership for several years. The Kiwi company said that the acquisition is a natural progression of their partnership.

Furthermore, Partners Life expects the scale of the combined businesses to considerably boost its efficiency while providing the foundation from which further innovations can be initiated.

Partners Life managing director Naomi Ballantyne said: “I am absolutely delighted for Partners Life to acquire such a long-standing and respected life insurance business from NAB and we are intent on ensuring that all BNZ Life and Partners Life customers benefit from this transaction.”

As part of the deal, BNZ Life has entered into an exclusive 10-year agreement with Partners Life for the referral of the former’s customers with life insurance requirements. The agreement will be subject to Partners Life continuing to comply with the agreed operating standards, said NAB.

Existing customers of BNZ Life are expected to benefit from having their covers upgraded to incorporate Partners Life’s claims philosophies, customer loyalty benefits, automatic product upgrade provision, and improvements to their products.

Besides, BNZ Life’s customers will get the flexibility to add additional covers from the Kiwi company’s product solutions.