In a few months’ time, the Bank will be issuing an Exposure Draft on Fair Treatment of Financial Consumers which will set out heightened regulatory expectations for all players. Agents will need to exercise greater care, skill and diligence in their dealing with customers. But rules and regulations are in themselves not sufficient to create a pool of agents trusted by customers: That would require all-round, holistic professionalism – an agent who is technically qualified, fully committed and uncompromising on ethical standards. To me, it is this integrity and calibre that will ultimately guarantee the continued success of agents into the next decade, more so than any other factor. Faced with a more demanding and complex business environment, agents must continuously develop and equip themselves with skills and knowledge that are relevant, and that will continue to remain relevant well into the future. There are plenty of formal programmes available to help agents progress in their technical competencies. There is also a whole host of open online courses which can be accessed anytime, anywhere, with the desire to learn is the only prerequisite. It is encouraging that various professional training courses are already being offered through NAMLIFA’s Financial and Life Practitioners Council, and that one of the programmes has been accredited by the Financial Accreditation Agency (FAA).
An Accenture survey revealed that aggregators account for 70% of new business premiums in the UK private automobile insurance market. Indeed, two product aggregators platforms are already operating within Bank Negara Malaysia’s Regulatory Sandbox. The Bank is reviewing the regulatory framework to enable the aggregators to operate by the end of this year. 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  These are headwinds that the industry has to tackle head-on, and like it or not, they will further intensify. While we cannot stop these changes, we can certainly choose how we respond to it. With challenges are opportunities. These can only be reaped through a combination of traits – greater proactiveness, a willingness to adapt and clear strategic thinking. I do not doubt that this is much harder than it sounds, but I believe a good place to start would be focusing on three priorities. Allow me to elaborate on each in turn. Technology that matters The vision for the life insurance and family takaful industry is to achieve a penetration rate of 75% of the Malaysian population. Within this, the takaful industry has set a 25% target to be achieved by 2020. For this to happen, it is crucial that the industry gets to grips with the shift in market demographics, especially where interactions with technological platforms are concerned. It is imperative that agents embrace technology. A 2017 study 1 by Bain & Company indicates that nearly 60% of insurance customers in Malaysia are digitally active.