Journey to Becoming a Leader in Family Takaful

Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad’s (PruBSN) journey to becoming the country’s leading takaful operator began in 2006 when it received a license by the Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia, or BNM). Today, 15 years on, PruBSN has a strong network of over 18,000 takaful agents who serve the evolving health and protection needs of more than 1.9 million Malaysian families. PruBSN supports the national agenda towards increasing the financial literacy and financial inclusion among the Malaysian population. More specifically, it helps to address the nation’s protection gap through its offering of Shari’a-compliant protection plans. Being a joint venture company owned by Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), Malaysia’s first and longest-running bank, significantly contributes to the company’s expansion and leading market position. Having taken over the operations of the initial Post Office Savings Bank in 1974, BSN’s established bank network and customer base nationwide facilitated PruBSN’s vast takaful outreach and allowed the new takaful company to provide tailor-made financial protection solutions to Malaysia’s largely lower-income and underserved communities at affordable rates. The joint venture served to strengthen PruBSN’s position and allowing it to bring takaful benefits to Malaysians in both urban and rural areas, including underserved and unserved communities, consequently accelerating the penetration of takaful nationwide.

Premised on the concept of ta`awun (co-operation and mutual assistance), PruBSN’s wide and growing range of family takaful products cover life and health protection, savings plan, education, and corporate plan, all of which are governed by the requirements of Shari’a law. Driven by its main purpose to “help people get the most out of life”, PruBSN aims to do this by making healthcare accessible and affordable, protecting customers’ wealth and growing their assets, and empowering people to save for their financial goals. These areas underpin the Company’s holistic approach in supporting the three stages in a person’s health journey – Prevent, Postpone, Protect.

NEEDS AND PROBLEMS DRIVE US TO INNOVATE

Pru-BSN has secured Malaysia’s Number 1 Family Takaful Operator for eight consecutive years, since 2014. This achievement is driven by the dedication to continuously ensure that Malaysians can lead a healthier and financially secure life and through a customer-centric approach, multi-distribution channel strategy, and the offering of innovative solutions built on Islamic values.

The company’s innovative spirit is part of our DNA. New pioneering products have been rolled out offering inclusive solutions to meet the specific needs of different groups within the Malaysian community.

Innovation also supported the company’s New Ways of Working (NWOW). The ever-changing COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) and ongoing movement control restrictions in Malaysia had negatively impacted business growth across the country and the world. PruBSN fostered and embraced the NWOW among employees and agents to support customer-centricity while enabling the organisation to adapt quickly in today’s ever-changing environment.

Being nimble and agile in embracing new technology and ways of doing business, prior to the onset of the pandemic, PruBSN had already embarked on digitalisation with the construction of its new office building which was built and designed for hybrid work. Thus, it was well-positioned and had a head start in overcoming the 2020 and 2021 challenges of remote working and was able to smoothly transition and continue its commitment to provide customers with end-to-end takaful services online.

AN INDUSTRY THAT CARES

Value-Based Intermediation for Takaful (VBIT) Framework and Roadmap was introduced in 2022 to drive the overall sustainability agenda for the Malaysian takaful industry. VBIT promotes the achievement of the objectives of Maqasid al-Shari’a that is to protect and sustain Faith, Life, Lineage, Intellect, Wealth. VBIT presents these objectives in a framework of five Underpinning Thrusts, with corresponding guiding principles, strategies, and performance measures. A VBIT Roadmap provides guidance for all Malaysian takaful and retakaful operators as they embark on their respective VBIT journeys towards achieving the aspiration of takaful for all. VBIT is benchmarked against and is in alignment with other globally accepted sustainability concepts include the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), and UNEP Finance Initiative Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI).

EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY AS PART OF OUR DNA

PruBSN is committed to build on its VBIT capabilities, and guided by the global sustainability approaches, took conscious steps to expand on its sustainability initiatives and develop it into a structured forward-looking strategic framework which aims to go beyond takaful product offerings which serve to create impactful value for the community and economy while preserving the environment.

PruBSN has established a Sustainability Steering Committee to drive and oversee the company’s sustainability agenda. Starting with the identification of Key Performance Indicators for the Leadership team and employees, sustainability initiatives will kick off with the rollout of an internal training programme in the last quarter of 2022. Other programmes and interventions, including various awareness campaigns, and developing a Sustainability Reporting framework, are planned to both create awareness and engage our internal community of employees and agents, as well as our external community (those that we serve) on the need and the responsibilities we have as People of the Planet towards sustainability and climate action. Our rationale is simple; the objectives of Maqasid al-Shari’a – safeguarding Life, Lineage, Wealth and Intellect – is dependent on the time, efforts and resources we commit to today.

The BSN TAKAFUL SAKINAH plan received the Insurance Inclusive Initiative    of the Year 2022, living up to PruBSN’s promise of “Takaful For All, For Life” through accessible and affordable shariah-compliant protection. It achieved coverage for over 200,000 individuals from lower-income community within seven months of its launch.