- Dauren Kasymhanovich, in your opinion, can online insurance completely replace insurance agents in the future? How high will the requirements for insurance agents be?
- Online insurance is a big step forward, which will later change the market. But, I believe, we should not wait for cardinal changes at first: customers, used to paper policies, will remain wary of electronic ones, and insurance agents will continue to work in the usual mode. The insurance market has a lot of work to do, but the results are worth it. I am sure, over time, Kazakhstani people will appreciate the convenience of electronic policies.
As for insurance agents, in the future their number may decrease, but I do not think that online insurance will completely replace them. I believe, the Kazakhstani market will follow the European way with different situation depending on cities and countries: in some places around 80% of clients prefer online insurance, and the remaining 20% choose insurance agents and company offices, and in others on the contrary: 80% prefer insurance agents and company offices and only 20% choose electronic policies.
However, the requirements to the agents will not increase, but the customary system of mutual relations between insurance companies and agents will change somewhat. The most important thing you need to know is that now the insurance agent will work for one company only. This means he will have to choose between insurance companies, and, hence, the loyalty to be increased.
- You have a lot of experience working with insurance agents, how do they evaluate this situation? Will you have to dramatically reduce the staff of your company?
- Our company has great respect for insurance agents; they are a necessary element, without which it is impossible to imagine insurance in general. Even if now someone worries that changes in insurance will carry serious consequences for insurance agents, it is necessary to understand: the market will never give up on them, it needs the agents!
As for Nomad Insurance, surely, we will revise a lot, change to adjust to new realities. But this does not mean that we will give up insurance agents or reduce their staff. The goal of insurance companies is to increase the insurance literacy not only among the population, but also among insurance agents. We have always made great efforts to do this for our clients, and for insurance agents, and we will continue to do it in future.
- Do you think online insurance will make a revolution in Kazakhstani insurance market or lead to extra spending of insurers?
- Online insurance is a big step towards digitalization and increase od security level for customers, as there are unscrupulous insurance agents. For years they did everything to prevent insurance companies from directly interacting with customers. For example, they entered their phone numbers in the policies. In the end, it's clients who suffer. According to my calculations, in Kazakhstan, 20-25% of all insurance policies are illegitimate. It turns out that one-fifth part of the market is under-insured. These are huge numbers. The goal of insurance market is to perform the best quality services to the customer. The National Bank took the right though far from being simple way: online insurance is necessary just to protect customers and facilitate the process of policy formalities. And we support the National Bank in this endeavor, because this corresponds to our priorities as well.
