FNB to enter short-term insurance market

Johannesburg - The Financial Services Board has awarded FirstRand, the parent company of First National Bank, a short-term insurance license. 

FirstRand acquired a long-term insurance license three years ago. 

"The licence will enable FNB to become a complete insurer, with the ability to underwrite short and long-term insurance to businesses and retail customers," the bank said in a media release on Monday.   

FNB CEO Jacques Celliers said in a statement that the license has made the bank a “fully-fledged” insurer. 

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“We are now well positioned to sustainably scale our insurance pillar through a philosophy of simplified complexity, great innovation and superior convenience,” Celliers said 

"Central to the success of our insurance business will be our ability to significantly increase efficiency by leveraging the FNB banking infrastructure and channels.” 

FNB Life Insurance CEO Lee Bromfield said in a statement that the bank's long-term strategy was to “build the lowest cost insurance company in the market through our ability to interact with customers at a significantly lower cost than competitors”.

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The bank said it would aim to make use of new digital technologies to make the claims process easier for customers. 

These includes what it terms "robo-claims processes" which it says it has built with "new-age artificial intelligence techniques" to ensure fast pay-outs.

The bank has promises to give its customers the ability to claim, track claims and service policies from any or its banking channels, including its app. 

FirstRand [JSE:FSR] shares were trading at R68.94 a share on Monday at 13:45, down 0.19% on the day.