British insurance company Prudential and Singapore-based bank United Overseas Bank (UOB) have renewed their regional bancassurance alliance.

Prudential

Image: Prudential Assurance Building viewed from High Holborn. Photo: Courtesy of David Iliff/Wikipedia.org.

The new agreement between Prudential and UOB will extend the original alliance which started in 2010 to 2034.

The geographical scope will now include fifth market, Vietnam, alongside the existing footprint across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Prudential Group CEO Mike Wells 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.”

As per the terms of renewal, Prudential’s life insurance products will be distributed through UOB’s network of over 400 branches in the five markets, offering products to more than four million UOB customers.

Furthermore, Prudential will use its digital capabilities to offer protection focused propositions to aid UOB’s digital bank expansion and customer acquisition aspirations. An initial fee of £662m will be paid under the agreement, funded through internal resources.

UOB deputy chairman and group CEO Wee Ee Cheong said the renewed agreement reflects the long-term approach and success of this partnership since 2010.

He continued saying: “UOB is focussed 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.

“We look forward to working together with Prudential to continue developing unique and innovative insurance solutions for Asia’s burgeoning affluent population and its increasing number of mobile-first and mobile-only consumers.”

Last month, the insurer’s Asian investment management arm Eastspring Investments opened an office in Shanghai. This new office in Shanghai will be a full-service investment and distribution office, which will cater to the investment needs of high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors in China.