FNB Life is disrupting the life insurance sector with its digitally led platform

FNB has a legacy of being a trusted, innovative provider of financial services, and its award-winning life insurance division FNB Life is living up to these expectations by rapidly transforming life insurance and providing digitally led platform-enabled insurance solutions.  

FNB Life is the only insurance provider in SA that uses home affairs data to check for deaths and allow customers to automatically receive their much-needed insurance payouts. More than R150m in proactive claims have been paid out in the past two years.

FNB Life also paid out more than R100m in credit life policies during the Covid-19 lockdown to protect the livelihoods of customers affected by the pandemic or retrenched. These payments were efficiently disbursed via the bank’s digital channels, providing quicker and safer customer application processes via the app.

FNB CEO Jacques Celliers says: “We have made significant strides in becoming the insurance provider of choice to FNB customers and customers who have relationships with other brands within our group and ecosystem.

“In just five years since launching, FNB Life has grown considerably into the FNB Retail base and, at present, close to 50% of debit orders from FNB accounts to a life insurer go to FNB Life.”

FNB has also disrupted the insurance sector by reducing the angst of manual processes and paper-based policies to enable digitised and easy access to insurance. The successful integration of its award-winning eBucks rewards programme into its life insurance solutions provides better value to customers. For instance, customers could earn up to 40% of their premiums back in eBucks on solutions such as FNB Life Simplified and Life Customised insurance products. Similarly, FNB Fusion or cheque account holders could earn up to 1,500 points towards their eBucks reward level each month.

“Based on our interpretation of customers’ needs and the future of life insurance, we are now focused on refining and expanding our digital platform to reduce barriers to entry and to provide a slick customer experience with contextual solutions,” says Celliers.

“A digitised approach represents the future of life insurance that consumers want and will increasingly demand. By coupling our established digital and service leadership with simple but high-value products as well as fair and affordable premiums, we are confident that we will remain at the forefront of disrupting the insurance landscape.” 

The dynamic approach to insurance has earned FNB Life a series of global and local accolades which include winning BAI global innovation recognition for Most Innovative Solution in Financial Services for Claims Excellence, Top Seller of Insurance via Digital and Fastest Growing Life Insurer in SA from SwissRe. Other accolades include a top three ranking for customer satisfaction in the annual SACSI customer satisfaction survey for the past four years.

“In general, insurance has always been a grudge purchase with policies that are impossible to understand as a lay person, hidden in piles of paper. The challenges that people have experienced with Covid-19 arguably highlights the value of this instrument in financial planning,” says Celliers.

“Fortunately, FNB Life was launched with the primary aim of disrupting and changing the insurance landscape by driving innovative and digitally led insurance products for the benefit of customers, and we are well advanced to realise that objective.” 

For more information visit the FNB website.

This article was paid for by FNB.