France’s AXA Group is the world's fourth biggest insurer in the world, generating $149.9 billion dollar in sales, according to Forbes' 2018 Global 2000 report.

However, they came late to the game in Malaysia. But with a strong and stable partner in Affin, the local company called AXA Affin is more than ready to step onto the Malaysian market.

“I have to admit that we are one of the latecomers to the insurance and Takaful space in Malaysia” Rohit Nambiar, CEO of AXA Affin acknowledges.

“But this is by no means an exclusion of us getting a market share in the much under-insured space of the country. We just have to push ourselves to be more innovative in how we do things,” he continues.

Roughly half of Malaysia’s population had life coverage and the penetration remains stagnant over the past few years, according to a 2016 Bank Negara report.

While Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), says up to 90 percent are considered to be underinsured, based on 2015 figures. Researches have pointed out that this phenomena could be attributable to the nature of the government providing automatic universal health care for its citizens.


Imagine you plan to go out for a morning run, and you just want to take a very short insurance policy that simply covers that

“The nature of Malaysians is that taking out a long term policy is a big decision for them. In fact, it is a big decision for everyone globally. And rightfully so,” says Rohit.

“That is why we have to cater to the various needs of our customers by ensuring that, for any customer who wants to own a life long policy, we have the necessary products and sales people to assist them. But for the everyday discerning customer, who simply wants an ultra-short term policy, we must also be equipped to be ready with the corresponding product to meet these kinds of needs,"

Ultra short term insurance and Takaful policies are the kinds of coverage that provides protection to policy holders for a short period of time. Sometimes just a for a few hours. There are even policies that cover just a few minutes even.

“Imagine you plan to go out for a morning run, and you just want to take a very short insurance policy that simply covers that. All you need to do is get online and purchase that insurance policy specifically for that purpose. If you are our existing customer, and we have your history, approval should be done instantaneously,” explains Rohit.

“This is what I mean by us having to innovate and do things slightly differently from our competitors.”