BCR Viata: Bancassurance will bring 75-80% of our sales

BCR Asigurari de Viata (BCR Life Insurance), a company set up by the BCR group at the end of 2005, closed last year with turnover worth 85 million RON (25.5 million euros), which includes 62% from bancassurance operations. The company’s gross underwritten premiums went up 69% in 2007, compared with the 50.4 million RON (14.3 million euros) in 2006. The whole life insurance market climbed 26% last year to 1.44 billion RON (432 million euros). “Considering that we are at the beginning, it is natural that we should see increases above the market average. Our sales strategy relied on two channels: financial advisers and the bank, both being under continuous development,” said Florina Vizinteanu, general manager of BCR Viata. The company’s relationship with the BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank) fetched the company 62% of sales in 2007, with the remaining 38% being generated by its own network of financial advisers, made up of 900 people from 44 agencies. “Our strategy is to boost the sales generated by the bank. Recently, we completed the integration into the Erste group, with one of the most important aspects of this project being the development of the bancassurance segment. We expect this activity will generate 75-80% of our sales by 2009,” added Vizinteanu.