DBS enhances its digital insurance platforms to woo wary millennials

SINGAPORE — DBS Bank is enhancing its digital insurance platforms to encourage millennial customers to buy insurance on their own, rather than through an agent. However, some millennials have told TODAY that they are wary of buying policies online.

DBS has formed partnerships with insurance companies such as Manulife and Chubb, known in the industry as bancassurance. It allows these insurers to tap DBS’ customer base.

On Thursday (May 30), the bank said that it plans to roll out more online insurance options to better cater to the needs of millennials. For example, health insurance plan CancerCare is slated to be available online in July for existing DBS and POSB customers.

They will be able to sign up online for a policy — covering all stages of cancer — and have their policy renewed automatically every five years without a health check-up or providing health evidence, DBS said.

Still, some millennials told TODAY that they are apprehensive about buying insurance on a digital platform, although some are willing to buy travel insurance online.

Customer service executive Alicia Liang, 22, said that she would be comfortable using digital services if the terms are “easy to understand” and “clear”, adding that she buys travel insurance for her overseas trips online. “For longer-lasting or more important insurance, I would prefer comprehensive advice from an expert in person.” 

Bank executive Javier Hee, 26, said that despite the convenience digital platforms provides, it requires “a lot of micromanaging” on his part. “When something happens, I would want to look for someone (who can help me with my insurance claims),” he said.

Undergraduate Denise Yeo, 20, said: “Such (insurance) plans are still foreign to me. I would need a lot of time to research if I were to manage these by myself. (Digital platforms are) viable and convenient only if I know exactly what I want and what is good.”

And undergraduate Yap Ying Qian, 22, who has bought travel insurance online twice, said that buying online from a trusted bank is more important for her. “The payment is straight away done within the app, I don’t even need to key in the credit card details.”

At a media briefing on Thursday, DBS noted that although digital platforms have provided ease and flexibility for millennials to do their financial planning and buy insurance, some people may still prefer face-to-face consultations for life insurance.

DBS said that its PayLah! e-wallet, introduced in August last year, was its “fastest growing channel”. About 12 per cent of its travel insurance sales came from the digital segment via PayLah!, it said.

A survey, conducted by DBS and Manulife, found that 73 per cent of millennials in their first job, and all newlyweds, are likely to buy life insurance online.

Mr Brandon Lam Wei Kiat, the Singapore head of DBS Bank’s financial solutions management group, said: “So based on some of the studies we have done, particularly for millennials, one of the top considerations when they are looking to buy an insurance product is really the convenience, being able to access and buy on their own terms and own time.”

Using technology, DBS has provided digital services, such as making sense of financial plans through financial planning tools, and getting quotes online based on their needs and problems.

An example is the recently launched Savvy Endowment Plan, which allows customers to instantly calculate premium quotes and receive policy issuance digitally.

Another organisation looking to ramp up its digital offerings is insurer NTUC Income, which on Thursday launched its life insurance portal Online Life and digital adviser for life insurance askSage.

NTUC Income said that these were designed to tap its digital assets and to enable self-service, such as looking up financial plans, insurance plans, communicating with a digital financial adviser and so forth.

Mr Peter Tay, NTUC Income’s chief operating officer, who heads the company’s digital transformation office, said: “The integrated proposition of Online Life and askSage is powerful because, for the first time, consumers are supported with digital assets that enable self-service of life insurance seamlessly online — from fact-finding, financial review and needs analysis to direct product identification, comparison and purchase.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NEO RONG WEI