CIMB Bank Philippines Inc. said it saw an uptick in insurance penetration among its customers, which the bank said is parallel with its financial inclusion initiatives.
The digital bank reported that clients who are eligible for free life insurance surged by 1,200 percent over the last three months, attributing this to “attainable mechanics.”
To avail of free insurance, depositors must maintain P5,000 in average daily balance. The amount of insurance is equal to the said balance of up to P250,000, the bank said.
“This is our response to our ever-changing customer’s needs after learning that more than half of our customers are looking for insurance coverage,” CIMB Bank Philippines CEO Vijay Manoharan said.
“And since insurance awareness is relatively new in the Philippines even when compared to other neighboring countries, we want to raise the awareness and have more Filipinos protected with basic insurance which is an important part of their financial planning,” Manoharan added.
For this year, the bank told the BusinessMirror in an earlier interview that it was eyeing to increase its loan portfolio by at least three times as clients seek additional sources of funding during this pandemic. Personal loan applications in 2020 grew by 160 percent while loan disbursement was up by sixfold.
“As you can imagine, with the current economic stress, consumers need banks to help them up for that extra credit facility to get them to cross over the hurdle,” the bank official said adding that they “found a space where we can still lend.”
CIMB is targeting to grow its deposit books by at least 1.5 to two times this year after recording 800-percent growth in 2020.
The digital bank eyes to onboard 5 million customers in 2021. To recall, its customer base doubled to over 3 million in the past year.
CIMB is also set to launch upgrades in services this year, with its mobile application having more features and functionalities to make transactions easier and quicker.
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