Financial Times

The Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI), company last week launched the first phase of its inaugural ‘Postal Insurance Service’, an initiative by SLI in collaboration with the Postal Services Department of Sri Lanka.

This project will provide those in remote areas easy access to insurance needs.

Three products have been introduced in the initial phase of the project i.e. Fire Insurance cover for private dwellings, Personal Accident Insurance and Burglary Insurance to fulfil the basic insurance needs of the rural customers.

These packages have been specially designed to bring insurance services to the rural market at an affordable price. Apart from these policies, renewals for third party insurance policies for motor vehicles will also be made available via the post offices, the company said.

“Sri Lanka insurance in its pursuit to take the benefit of insurance services to rural Sri Lanka will use post offices in all parts of the country to educate and offer insurance benefits to rural dwellers.

This exclusive service, provided only by Sri Lanka Insurance will be available to any customer who wishes to obtain an insurance cover through a simple process of completing a proposal form and handing it over to the post master.
Upon receiving payment, a copy of the receipt will be handed over to the customer while a copy will be held at the post office and another sent to the Postal Insurance Department of Sri Lanka Insurance. Sri Lanka Insurance will thereafter dispatch the required policy directly to the customer,” the statement said.

The postal network is an added distribution channel for Sri Lanka Insurance who already has an extensive distribution network via their branch network, bank assurance and direct marketing channels.

Sri Lanka Postal Department’s 4044 strong postal network consisting of 634 main post offices and 3410 sub post offices spanning across 9 provinces of the country will enable Sri Lanka Insurance to reach out to a larger market segment.

A series of workshops and training sessions were conducted at a regional level during the month of April, to ensure that post masters and other post office staff are well trained on the products on offer and the processes to be followed in servicing the customers.

Sri Lanka Insurance said it is the largest and strongest composite insurance provider in Sri Lanka, with over Rs 50 billion in assets under management, over one million policies in force and an average claims settlement of Rs 18 million a day.

Sri Lanka Insurance is the only insurance company in Sri Lanka to be assigned a global rating for financial strength and stability from a world renowned rating agency, the statement said.