Five overseas-owned life insurance businesses have been granted provisional licences to provide insurance services in Myanmar.

The five insurers – Prudential plc of the UK, Dai-ichi Life Holdings of Japan, Manulife of Canada, AIA of Hong Kong, and Chubb of the US – are expected to begin operating by the end of 2019.

Under the terms specified by the Ministry of Planning and Finance, the five companies will be required to submit an irrevocable and unconditional proposal bond of US$400,000 by 26 April in line with the conditions agreed in their initial applications.  In addition, any insurance companies that failed to secure operating licences (as well as those with an existing representative office in Myanmar) may enter the local market via a joint venture with a domestic life insurance company.

As of 2017, Myanmar’s life insurance premium revenue was only at $13 million.  Previously, the government held a long monopoly over the state’s insurance business, only recently opening the market to private companies in 2013.  According to a forecast by Dai-ichi, Myanmar’s insurance market will expand nearly a hundred times over to $1.3 billion in just a decade following the market’s opening.

Source:
Insurance Business Asia
Prudential responds to granting of Myanmar licence