Introduction to General Insurance

1.0 Introduction

Insurance industry has been developing and improvising since it was brought into Malaysia. Currently, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is the regulator which supervised and regulates the insurance companies, insurance brokers, adjustors and financial advisory companies. All the insurers in Malaysia are licensed by the Minister of Finance on the recommendation of the BNM (Zaid Ibrahim, 2015).

In Malaysia, insurance industry can be categorized into Life insurance, Takaful insurance, andGeneral insurance. In 2012, General insurance occupied 35.5% out of the whole insurance industry, which also implies that General insurance is very important (Frost & Sullivan, 2014). From years to years, general insurance industry has becomes more and more competitive as more and more company has been formed. There is no doubt that general insurance industry is still growing nowadays, and the demands of the market has increased from time to time also. General insurance protect insured against risk excluded in life insurance, which means that anything related to life benefits are excluded. There exist many types of general insurance to satisfy the demand of society.

According to ‘PersatuanInsurans Am Malaysia’ (PIAM) in 2016, general insurance consists of two categories: personal lines and commercial lines. Under personal lines, the insurance products are specifically designed for the public. On the other hand, insurance products under commercial lines are mainly sold to businesses or corporations. Table 1.0 highlights the major general insurance products sold in Malaysia and their descriptions.

Table 1.0: Major General Insurance Products Sold in Malaysia

Insurance	Description
Motor Insurance	Provides coverage on financial protection against physical damage by moving vehicle.
Fire Insurance	Includes coverage of loss cause by fire, lightning, or explosion of domestic appliances.
Medical and Health Insurance	Provides coverage on the cost of medical treatment for insured.
Personal Accident Insurance	Provides compensation when injuries, disabilities, or death happened accidentally and covers travel related accidents.
Marine, Aviation, and Transit (MAT) Insurance	Includes coverage for marine hull, aircraft, cargo and offshore goods.
Liability Insurance	Protects insured in the event of getting sued for claims that come within the coverage of the insured’s liability insurance policy.

Source: (PersatuanInsurans Am Malaysia (PIAM), 2016) &( Frost&Sullivan,2014)

General insurance market is a highly competitive and hence, marketing and distribution systems of the insurance companies determined the profit, gain and loss of their company.No doubt that to compete against others, different strategies, skills, and also financial knowledge must be apply to succeed in this industry. In this report, the demand and supply of insurance products in the general insurance marketplace, the marketing strategies used by the insurance companies, different distribution systems and the distribution channels used in Malaysian general insurance companies will be discussed.

2.0 Malaysian General Insurance Marketplace

Insurance Companies in Malaysia

No.	Name
1	AXA Affin General Insurance Berhad
2	AmGeneral Insurance Berhad
3	Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad
4	DanajaminNasionalBerhad
5	Lonpac Insurance Berhad
6	MPI GeneraliInsuransBerhad
7	Pacific & Orient Insurance Co. Berhad
8	Progressive Insurance Berhad
9	RHB Insurance Berhad
10	Tune Insurance Malaysia Berhad
11	ACE Jerneh Insurance Berhad
12	AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad
13	Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Berhad
14	Liberty Insurance Berhad
15	MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd
16	Overseas Assurance Corporation (Malaysia) Berhad
17	Pacific Insurance Berhad, The
18	QBE Insurance (Malaysia) Berhad
19	Tokio Marine Insurans (Malaysia) Berhad

            Table 1.1: List of Companies. Information obtain from www.bnm.gov.my.