LIAM HOPES NEW GOVT EXTENDS PTV INITIATIVE

By Nur Adika Bujang

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) hopes the new Federal Government will extend the Perlindungan Tenang Voucher (PTV) initiative for the low-income group next year.

President Loh Guat Lan said the initiative was well received by the people of the low-income group since its introduction last year and created an awareness that taking an insurance policy was not only important but affordable as well.

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“We were very happy that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), together with the Finance Ministry, came up with the PTV initiative and it is a really good step for the low-income group, who generally thought that an insurance policy was expensive, a luxury and that it was something that they couldn’t own.

“So, the PTV initiative is managing the misconceptions about insurance policy and creating an awareness of the importance of having one,” she told Bernama after attending LIAM Sabah Liaison Committee Meeting here today.

He said the idea of the PTV initiative was to create awareness on the importance of financial planning, which cuts across all age groups and would definitely help drive the penetration rate at the lower-income group level.

Chief executive officer Mark O’Dell said more than six million PTVs were redeemed since the initiative was introduced, which was greater than the association had anticipated.

He said last year, 1.7 million of the vouchers were redeemed while this year recorded 4.9 million.

“Generally speaking, the government’s move to subsidise RM70 of the RM75 voucher (this year) made it easy for this target group to decide to take out a policy. There was no downside to it,” he said.

The initiative started last year with the introduction of the PTV RM50 and was increased to RM75 this year to enable more Malaysians to continue their life insurance protection through the benefits of Perlindungan Tenang insurance products.

On another development, O’Dell said LIAM has plans and activities to ensure the objectives of BNM’s Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-2026 were achieved.

He said three of the five thrusts in the blueprint were mostly to do with insurance, which LIAM aspires to improve in the areas of financial literacy, penetration rate and digitalisation.

O’Dell said Malaysia’s penetration rate was still relatively low, which is about 4 per cent and the blueprint targeted 4.8 to 5 per cent of total premiums to gross domestic product (GDP).

He said LIAM has initiatives to understand what the skills development would look like 15 years down the road such as what jobs would be less in demand, repurposed or new ones required by the market.

“We want to be conscious about knowing where the gaps are, knowing what we think we need to plan on and not reacting but trying to be proactive to make sure our industry is keeping pace,” he added.

-- BERNAMA