Financial Times

Prudential Assurance enters insurance market
Prudential Assurance Lanka Ltd (PAL), last week became Sri Lanka’s 15th and newest insurance company to enter the country’s largely untapped Life and General insurance markets, offering an array of innovations hitherto unknown in the industry.

Among them are three novel protection plans – ‘Vinivida’, the flexible protection and investment plan, ‘Naya Sahana’, the loan protection plan, and ‘Uththunga’, the family protection plan, all of which have attractive and competitive premium rates, innovations and many rider benefits, the company said in a statement. It is headed by Dr. Wimal Wickremasinghe, an economist and former politician, as Managing Director/CEO. Among its highly qualified staff are Gnanasiri Talagala, General Manager (General) who is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and Chartered Insurer (London), Chandrasiri Kevitiyagala, DGM (Life) who is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Insitute (London) and Samitha Sooriyarachchi as Marketing Manager.
Dr Wickremasinghe said that the Company’s prime objectives are to service customers, issue and dispose of insurance policies without delays together with the prompt payment of claims.

He said that though a number of insurance companies exist in Sri Lanka, there still is potential for more insurance companies to operate a vibrant business. “This is due to the fact that the coverage of insurance in this country, both in life and general insurance is dismally low, the former being less than 15%. With our strong financial backup and aggressive marketing strategy with innovative and attractive policies, we are confident of finding a niche in the insurance market for which there is a lot of potential which remains both untapped and unexplored”, the Prudential chief, who was chairman of Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation in the late 1980s, said.

The company’s Life Insurance business is reinsured by Munich Reinsurance Company, Germany, one of the most trusted and reputed reinsurance companies in the world. In the field of General Insurance, it is reinsured by Allianz Re, General Insurance Corporation of India, Mitsui Sumitomo, BEST Re, Toa Re and Labuan Re through an internationally reputed broker, JLT Risk Solutions (Asia) Pvt Ltd in Singapore.

The Board of Directors of the Company are T.M.D William (Chairman) J.S Dissanayake (Deputy Chairman), Sriyal Dissanayake, Dr. Wimal Wickramasinghe, D.L.W. Talagala, Nihal Fonseka and V.Gunarathne.

Back to Business