Absa Life
Video
Absa Life Exco
PA
Marietta Pedridis
Managing
Executive Life
EA
Vacant
Jannie Venter
GM High
Advice
Mugove Nyimu
Head Customer
Experience
Shelley Jones
GM Embedded
Products
GM Branch
Sejal Vallabh
Khanyi Mashapa
Direct and
Digital
Ayanda Seboni
Chief Financial
Officer
Chief Operating
Officer
Head of HR
Life
Eugene Strauss
Sunil Nagar
Jameela Essop
GM Risk and
Capital
Managment
Bertus Thomas
Strategic Themes
Each strategic theme has been unpacked into certain actions that are required to achieve them.
These actions have been regrouped into strategic initiatives to facilitate the implementation framework of the strategy
Establish and maintain a clear focus
on bancassurance and not to be
distracted by smaller opportunities
Improve our capability in branch sales
Learn to interact digitally
Develop the skills and capabilities to
be a global business that can
implement and manage its business
in many different countries
Be excellent in our core
business, focussing on Product,
Service, Process and Support
Understand how to utilise marketing
and branding, and develop the skills
required to make this happen in
practice
Excel at fostering working
relationships at all levels with the
bank
Contribute to the Customer
Value Proposition of the bank,
making the overall offering of the
bank more competitive
Continue to develop our good skills
in the provision of high advice
products
Create capacity in all the work we
have identified. This means being
very selective in what we work on
Manage our key stakeholders well to
ensure that they support our vision
and assist us in achieving our goals
Ensure our People / Employee value
proposition is such that we can
continue to attract and retain talented
people and that all employees are
motivated to do their best
What is your
Business Unit’s
Purpose
Describe the Values
and behaviours of your
business unit
What are the
upcoming quarter’s
focus areas for your
business unit
Absa Life is a long-term
insurer focusing on life
insurance and investment
products. The business
insures a large pool of
customers through a variety
of distribution channels.
These include the Absa
Insurance and Financial
Advisers (AIFA), the Absa
Retail Bank branch network,
a number of telesales
channel partners as well as
some direct platforms such
as automated teller
machines (ATMs), the
internet and mobile phone
Absa Life fully subscribes to the
Barclays values of Respect,
Integrity, Service, Excellence and
Stewardship. We believe that it is
a business imperative that all
staff operates from a basis that
encompasses the values. We
expect that all our staff live the
values at all times and any
behaviour that is at odds with the
values is not accepted
The main focus areas for the
rest of the year are to ensure
that at a minimum we
achieve the business targets
that we have set ourselves.
Another key focus area is to
ensure that we start
executing on our strategy.
We also want to continue our
journey of ensuring that we
always place the customer at
the centre of everything we
do
Markets and Opportunities
Markets
Regulatory Changes
Whilst the life insurance market is mature in South
Africa, penetration rates on the rest of the continent
low. AFS’s access to the Barclays customer base
and its experience of growing the mass market in
South Africa stands it in good stead.
Opening up new opportunities in Africa.
Consumers
Global trend to protection products (vs. savings) in
a global financial crisis, but consumers are price
sensitive and want to deal with trusted brands.
AFS’s Bancassurance model delivers cost
competitive products from trusted brands (Absa
brand in South Africa, Barclays outside South
Africa).
Market Proposition
Long term insurance for life and disability protection
Complex (high advice) and simple (low advice) product suite
Competitive products in external market (pricing and benefits)
Easy access via multiple channels, incl. advisors, direct / digital sales, branch network
Embedded product suite to support bank lending products
Under-written and non under-written based on risk profile affects premium and benefits
Packaged (OTC) solutions
Straightforward products
Strong staff proposition
Finance
Finance can be described as the backbone to the organisation where all the different areas within the business come
together from a financial point of view
They are responsible for:
Day to day payment of the all
operational payments such as
claims, refunds etc
The full accounting process
that covers all aspects in the
life cycle of a policy
The taxation computation for
the company and ensuring
that all SARS payments are
made on time
The production of monthly
management accounts on a
very detailed product level to
help the different business
areas to get an understanding
of their financial position
Assisting the actuarial team in
compiling the regulatory returns
and dealing with queries from the
regulator
Producing the annual
financial statements and
ensuring that the statutory
audit process is conducted
on a satisfactory basis
Producing the medium and
short term plans for the
company based input and
insight from the various
business areas
Providing Absa Life with
accurate, timeous, and
relevant MI reports that
enable business decision
making.
Continually monitoring the
industry for latest trends
and developments not only
in terms of MI/BI tools and
methodologies but also
new ways of interrogating
data.
options
MI
The largest MI’s main purpose is to produce
and implement an MI strategy that is aligned
to the Absa Life strategy and this includes
the following:
Continually look for new
ways of making reporting
quicker, simpler and more
accurate
Provide Absa Life with regular
and adhoc business intelligence
that enables business to
understand the trends that
occur and why they occur and
how best to make business
decision based on these trends
Maintain the full MI
environment which includes
the actual MI architecture,
data quality, data loading,
reporting, and front end BI
tools.
MI Bulk Uploads
Bulk uploads is a function that resides within MI where the daily tasks of the area include the following:
Validating files
received from
business partners
for accuracy and
consistency, and
continuously
updating and
developing new
validation
programmes to
allow for fast and
accurate
corrections to data
quality issues
Managing the
relationship with
business partners
that provide data
to Absa Life to
ensure that all
changes are
understood and
are implemented
quickly with as
little disruption as
possible for
business.
Uploading of Credit
Life files onto the
MULPAS
administration system,
and dealing with any
issues arising from this
process which
includes engaging with
both external parties
and internal IT
Producing financial
reports that are used
as direct inputs into
the Absa Life
financials on a
monthly basis for
products uploaded.
Producing MI reports
that are used by
business to track
their business on a
monthly basis.
High Advice
High Advice is responsible
for providing Financial
Planners, Financial
Advisers and Wealth
Managers with Life
Insurance solutions.
Additionally, we
also provide a
Group Life and
Cell Captive
offering as
alternative risk
options for
corporate clients.
These include the
appropriate Risk and
Investment Linked
Endowment products, the
necessary sales tools for
client discussions and any
technical support required
for a smooth client onboarding.
Corporate clients can
achieve scale as large
group and we are able
to customise
affordable life
insurance benefits.
Absa Life
Absa Life continues to outperform the market in terms of RoE
High Advice and
Simple Products
Death cover
Funeral cover
Accidental death
Permanent disability
Temporary disability
Retrenchment
Income protection
Critical illness
Retrenchment
Distribution
Channels
Embedded channel R311m (33%) - Life, Disability
and Retrenchment cover
Branch channel R91m (10%) - Funeral, Life and
Accident Retail Bank
High advice R289m (30%) - Underwritten life, dread
disease and disability
Direct and digital R262m (27%) - Funeral, accidental
death and disability cover
Call centres, ABSA online, ATM, mobile
Branch
The Branch
Channel is
responsible for
the efficient sales
of standalone
products sold
through Absa’s
retail branches
nationally.
Their main role is to
entrench the agreed AFS
Bancassurance strategy
and to enable the sales
teams within the retail
branches to provide life
cover as part of client
solutioning into the Absa
customer base.
Whilst the main function is to
provide support to both sales
support consultants within AFS
Distribution as well as ensure sleek
systems and processes for ease of
selling, they also provide tactical
support by identifying areas where
“quick wins” may be achieved as
well as ensuring strong strategic
relationships within the retail bank
structure are created and
maintained.
Actuarial Business Solutions
Aims to provide high quality actuarial support to the Barclays Africa life assurance entities, in the form of:
Development of market leading life
insurance products that meet the
needs of customers, and that are
priced fairly from the perspective of
both policyholders and shareholders
Establishment of sufficient reserves to
meet the future obligations arising
from the existing book of policies and
ensuring that profits are not
recognised prematurely
Understanding the profitability of the
business by monitoring the decrement
and persistency experience of the
book of business, analysing the
sources of profit and determining the
profitability of each product line
Monitoring the solvency of the
company by ensuring that excess
assets are produced from the
business operations and that
sufficient capital is retained to
withstand adverse experience
Management of the business assets
to ensure sufficient liquidity to meet
obligations as and when they fall due,
efficient asset-liability management is
in place, and that excess assets
generate investment returns as
required by shareholders
Compliance with Regulatory
requirements are met, in particular
with respect to solvency, investment
restrictions, treating customers fairly
and regulatory reporting
Embedded
The Embedded Business unit follows the Bancassurance Model,
where a partnership or relationship between Absa Life and Absa
Retail bank if formed to create a platform in the bank’s infrastructure
to sell insurance products to the bank customers.
Our primary product is credit life insurance which is easily accessible,
need specific product that ensures comprehensive insurance cover in the
event of death, retrenchment, dread disease and disability of permanent
or temporal nature.
Credit life insurance is offered to any customer who has successfully
applied for any core credit facility provided by the bank. These can
include Vehicle and Asset Finance, Personal Loans, Micro Loans,
Credit Card, Revolving Loans, Mortgage Loans, Overdraft facilities
as well as credit granted against pension funds.
The embedded team members are therefore responsible for effective
management of relationships with the bank stakeholders and to
influence stakeholder’s attitudes, decisions and actions in the manner
they sell our products. And to provide them with maximum support to
be able to sell our products and increase the bank’s customer value
proposition.
In Absa Life the voice of customer has been significantly elevated in
recognition of fact that delivering customer value is a key differentiator
in a competitive environment.
With our priority firmly on our customers we will be
focusing on a number of initiatives to build a capability
that will enable us to deliver winning value propositions
to customers and employees to support Absa Life’s
strategic intent to become a world class bancassurer.
These include
Identify the world-class best
practices employed for
building and leading a
competitively unique
customer centric enterprise
Customer
Experience
Integrate Absa Life solutions
into the Customer Value
Proposition of the bank
Build a competence around
gathering customer insights
Improve our retention
capability by analysing
customer insights of exiting
clients and addressing sub
optimal process, service or
product issues
Build a customer dashboard
with appropriate management
information
Use marketing and
communications to effectively
present our value promise to
customers and internal
stakeholders
Collaborate with internal
stakeholders who touch
customers to understand their
needs and establish how we
can support them in
building strong lifelong
relationships
Direct and Digital
At direct and digital we understand that not everyone has time to
come into the branch or meet with an advisor.
We bring simple, efficient products to you.
Utilising Online, mobile and telephony we present our clients with an
opportunity to secure their futures by taking out life insurance
products that suit their needs.
Click, Click
Ring, Ring
The Chief Operating Office
Underwriting is the process of
identifying and classifying
acceptable risks for insurance
companies. Underwriting is
essentially an extension of the
product pricing process. To
determine the basic premium
for a standard risk, age,
gender and smoking habits are
generally used.
The Chief Operating Office
An underwriter needs to
determine the factors that
presents a higher than
standard risk (the factors
over and above age, gender
and smoker status). When a
risk is identified as higher
than normal, we refer to it as
a substandard risk.
Underwriting considerations
include medical and nonmedical factors when
classifying the risk.
Examples of medical factors
include diseases such as
high blood pressure,
overweight, heart attack,
stroke and cancer. Examples
of non-medical factors are:
dangerous hobbies, risks
associated with certain
occupations and financial
risks.
Substandard risks are
charged a higher premium the underwriter’s job is to
determine the extra premium
to be charged.
UNDERWRITE = Understand the risk,
Write profitable business.
The Chief Operating Office
Operational Risk (OpRisk) is
defined as the risk of loss
resulting from inadequate or failed
internal processes, people and
systems or from external events.
OpRisk responsibilities include
the assistance to business in
embedding the OpRisk
Framework, (including tools and
other support) as well as
providing independent oversight
and challenge across the
business.
The Chief Operating Office
We support and inform the
Board and Exco on any
relevant issues, and also
assist business to
prevent/minimise
operational risk events and
losses.
We also provide the link
between business and
Audit, and facilitate the
process.