Clients to benefit from Sun Life, TPBank deal: CEO

Larry Madge, CEO of Sun Life Vietnam.

Sun Life Vietnam and TPBank in November announced a 15-year exclusive bancassurance agreement in Vietnam, affirming a long-term commitment to help clients achieve financial goals utilizing the best banking and insurance solutions. Larry Madge, CEO of Sun Life Vietnam, tells VnExpress about their purposes and plans for this partnership.

Why did Sun Life Vietnam choose TPBank as an exclusive strategic partner for bancassurance?

TPBank’s impressive business results, together with healthy development orientation, and prestigious market reputation are the main reasons for Sun Life Vietnam to be excited to partner with TPBank. TPBank shares our relentless focus on delivering the best client experience and client solutions. So, we enjoy strong alignment in the coming journey helping clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.

Sun Life Vietnam and TPBank representatives at the signing ceremony.

What benefits does this partnership bring to clients?

Clients will benefit from this partnership by gaining access to a comprehensive range of innovative insurance solutions to complement existing banking offers, in one place.

We will work closely with TPBank to better understand their clients and develop the right products and digital solutions to fit seamlessly into existing TPBank processes so that we are both easy to do business with and proactive.

We will set up a dedicated, professional and well-trained advisor force to offer quality advice, and be available across TPBank offices for the convenience of clients.

What are Sun Life Vietnam's expectations on the outcome of this strategic partnership?

The insurance market in Vietnam is full of potential. Currently, insurance penetration is only about 1.5 percent of GDP with less than 10 percent of the population covered. Markets like Thailand are in excess of 3 percent of GDP so the Vietnam market needs to grow much more quickly to enable Vietnamese to access the protection they need.

Together, Sun Life and TPBank will provide opportunities for TPBank’s 2.5 million clients to gain the protection that suits them at a time that is right for them. By doing the right thing for clients, we expect very strong sales growth over many years.

What is Sun Life’s strategy, and how will it be reflected in your exclusive partnership with TPBank?

Sun Life has operations in a number of countries world-wide providing both insurance and asset management solutions; with Asia being our fastest growing market. In all our markets we have a "Client for Life" strategy that puts the needs of our clients at the center of everything we do. 

In partnership with one of the country’s most prestigious banks focusing on digital banking, we are investing in digital solutions to provide a great client experience, while also investing in data analytics to be proactive in meeting client needs.

We recently increased our focus on helping clients live healthier, which is another area we expect to continue investing in. In this partnership, we will deploy this client focus and expand our impact to help TPBank customers.

Apart from your business, Sun Life Vietnam is known as one of the most active life-insurance companies in terms of CSR activities. Can you tell us more?

Our purpose is to help clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. This purpose is reflected through our CSR activities, such as "Sun Life Resolution Run" to raise awareness on the importance of an active lifestyle to combat diabetes; "Basketball Hoops at School" to encourage students to build active habits from a young age; "Women with Financial Management" workshops to provide financial knowledge and skills. In addition, H’hen Nie acts as Sun Life Brand Ambassador to spread awareness, knowledge, and skills to millions of people. 

In the past three years, the growth rate of Sun Life Vietnam always topped the average market rate. How come?

We have been focused on the Client for Life strategy that I discussed earlier and building technology, products, and processes to deliver a great client experience. For distribution, we started in 2013 with Corporate Accounts providing employer paid pension and life products, and in 2015 invested in Agency where we have been building capability with over 50 offices across the country. We are very pleased to now enter bancassurance, and are committed to becoming a top banca insurance partner by working with TPBank.

What encouraged you to become Sun Life Vietnam CEO?

I was Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary at Sun Life in Toronto before taking on this role. In that role, I had a chance to interact with the actuaries in all of our countries including Vietnam and got a great understanding of the scope of our global businesses. I was very excited to take on the accountability of CEO for Sun Life Vietnam because here we are building a new business in an environment that is fast-paced and full of opportunity to grow both as a business and personally. 

I love the energy and optimism here in Vietnam as well as the friendly people and great food. Deciding to come here was a positive decision for both my family and me.