AXA to sell general insurance at 34 SingPost branches

Singapore

SINGPOST and insurance company AXA announced on Monday that their partnership, AXA@POST, will now allow customers to purchase general insurance at 34 post offices across the island.

This is in addition to the life insurance options that were made available at SingPost branches earlier this January - almost a year and a half after the companies announced their exclusive 10-year postassurance partnership in July 2013.

AXA hopes to expand to 44 branches, as well as offer business solutions, by Q3 2015. "The main part of the market will be the masses," Glenn Williams, CEO of AXA Life Insurance Singapore, said of AXA@POST's target customer base. "But it is certain there are very clear segments of the post office where perhaps in the past we may have missed such as SMEs, overseas Filipino workers, and expats."

Mr Williams also said that he expects the partnership to make up approximately 25 per cent of sales, on the life insurance side.

With up to five financial advisers at each branch, as well as iPads displaying solution information to post office customers, AXA hopes to use this partnership to reach customers through a new channel.

Doina Palici-Chehab, CEO of AXA Insurance Singapore, stressed the importance of being able to meet a company representative face-to-face, rather than finding information solely online.

The launch, fittingly hosted at the Fullerton Hotel (the building was once home to the General Post Office), was centred around a "talkshow"-style information session with Mrs Palici-Chehab, Mr Williams, and Marjorie Ooi - senior vice-president for financial services for SingPost.

"Post offices have been serving as a community hub, connecting people and businesses across Singapore," Ms Ooi said. "We offer choice and convenience to our customers, and our partnership with Axa fits right in with our strategic direction in providing high quality and value-enhancing products and services."

Ms Ooi added that the plan to provide business insurance in the future also gels with SingPost's efforts in enhancing solutions for SMEs.

Wolfgang Baier, group CEO of SingPost, called the partnership a "reinvention of the post office".

"We hope that at the end of the year, we'll have 44 locations where people can not only come in to post their parcels and letters, pay their bills, and collect their passports, but now - going forward - they can also have a full range of insurance services," he said.