FWU Group receive 'Best Takaful Provider' Award at Euromoney Islamic Finance Awards 2011

Thursday 24th February 2011, Dubai, UAE - FWU Group today announced that it was the recipient of the "Best Takaful Provider" Award from the Euromoney Islamic Finance Awards 2011 in London held on the 22nd February 2011. The event, hosted at the prestigious Landmark Hotel, recognised the most successful Islamic institutions worldwide.

It is the second time that FWU Group receive an accolade from the Euromoney Islamic Finance Awards. In 2007 FWU Group was awarded as the "Best Life Takaful Provider". This award recognised the group's growing footprint, reputation for innovation, creative product design, IT systems and quality of white labelled unit-linked savings plans. FWU Group has replicated this successful model to its international Family Takaful business, bringing in the knowledge and expertise. Indeed, FWU Group is the uncontested leader in the fast expanding Takaful industry, and is the largest global producer of Bancatakaful in five markets: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia and Pakistan.

"Our position as leaders can be attributed to the successful long term strategic partnerships we have developed with local Takaful partners and the distribution agreements with major banks in each market. FWU Group has developed a very unique business model" says Dr Manfred Dirrheimer, Chairman and CEO.

FWU Group offers its bank distribution partners a customised innovative Takaful product family, which includes savings, education, and marriage plans. FWU Group also introduced in 2010 a second generation of Family Takaful Investment Linked Plans (both Regular and Single Premium). The investment value proposition takes into account the various risk profiles specific to each customer segment and provides an open-investment architecture where banks can incorporate their own Shari'ah-compliant funds into the investments universe as well as a proprietary quantitative investment model for the monthly fund selection and allocation. FWU Group's Takaful partners offer two distinct investment strategies: equities and cash. The Participant in the Takaful Fund is able to choose which strategy is best suited to his/her risk appetite.

FWU Group has recently introduced a unique investment programme in conjunction with an international bank: the dynamic principal-protected equity strategy. This Dynamic Protection Plan (DPP) is an additional tool, which will be added to the actively managed underlying equity portfolio of the FWU Group Family Takaful Programmes. It has been designed to allow for participation in the upward trends of the equity markets whilst offering protection against bearish markets.

Thanks to this mechanism, the level of protected unit price can only increase, but never decrease during the entire contribution payment period of the Takaful contract. The concept offers not only capital protection for the total invested contribution component at the end of the contribution payment period, but also a continuous and innovative fixing of protected unit prices at maturity within the Family Takaful Program. As a result, the Participant can profit continuously from the opportunities of the international stock markets while being protected against losses by the end of the investment term.

Besides product and process innovation, FWU Group also prides itself in giving advice and support regarding regulatory matters, full after-sales service including training and customer risk profiling.

"FWU Group has ambitious plans for the Takaful industry and is planning to further extend its outreach to countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Brunei and South Africa. FWU Group's aim is to create a Family Takaful business not only for Muslim communities but also for the worldwide non-Muslim consumers" says Sohail Jaffer, Partner and Head of International Business Development.


Courtesy by: Zawya

Japan's Mitsui says eyes stake in Malaysian Islamic insurer

Tokio Marine is expected to sell its stake in Hong Leong Tokio Marine to the Malaysian shareholder which would then sell it on to Mitsui Sumitomo, both pending regulatory approval, a source said.

Japan's Nikkei newspaper had earlier reported that Tokio Marine was planning to exit its partnership in Hong Leong Tokio Marine due to differences in business strategy. While Tokio Marine wants to sell a broad lineup of life and non-life insurance, Hong Leong is keen to focus on savings-type policies, the paper said.

Mitsui Sumitomo has been looking to expand its overseas operations by forging tie-ups with peers in emerging markets as Japan's non-life insurance market shrinks.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance managing executive officer Masaaki Nishikata told Reuters in September that MS&AD Insurance was in talks to buy into several life insurers in Asia as it aims to tap the region's growing economies.

A unit of Tokio Marine halted talks with Malaysia's PacificMas to buy medical insurance provider Pacific Insurance Bhd last July.

The market for Islamic insurance, or takaful, is expected to grow in tandem with rising demand for ethical investments. Total takaful contributions could reach $7.7 billion a year by 2012, Ernst & Young has forecast. But global takaful contributions are less than 1 percent of the total insurance premium spend annually, industry lawyers Clyde & Co have said. ($1 = 81.335 Japanese Yen) (Click on for more Islamic finance stories and for a speed guide) (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; writing by Liau Y-Sing; editing by Lincoln Feast)

Courtesy by: Reuters