NICHE insurance company St Andrew’s Australia has obtained regulatory approval to operate a new life insurance company.
Managing director John Van Der Wielen said the licence granted to St Andrew’s Life Insurance was the first life licence granted in Australia in almost two years, and made St Andrew’s the only life company to be based in Perth.
St Andrew’s is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK banking group HBOS, which last year moved to full ownership of BankWest.
Mr Van Der Wielen, a former WA Business News 40under40 winner, said St Andrew’s was gearing up for an expansion of its Australian operations.
In its seven years in the Australian market, St Andrew’s has focused on consumer credit insurance, which covers people with personal loans, housing loans, credit cards and other forms of consumer debt.
Hitherto it has offered cover for sickness, accidents or unemployment, but will now be able to offer life cover.
Mr Van Der Wielen said the initial focus would be on providing life insurance cover to people who took any form of finance, but the group planned to widen its product range in the second half of 2004.
It would continue to offer less complex products that could be sold by staff in banks and other financial institutions.
He said St Andrew’s brand and global expertise would create significant competition in the market.
“St Andrew’s growth in consumer credit insurance has reached a point where it is more than justifiable that it opens its own life insurance company to cover the life insurance component of its consumer credit range of products,” Van Der Wielen said.
Mr Van Der Wielen expects St Andrew’s will double staff numbers in Perth over the coming year from the current 33.
Premium income is expected to lift 20 per cent to $30 million in 2004.
“St Andrew’s growth ... has reached a point where it is more than justifiable that it opens its own life insurance company.”
