Jan 2015 Financial News

Barbados good for Guardian

Jan 22, 2015

LONG-STANDING CARIBBEAN INSURER Guardian is pumped up about the prospects for its Barbados operation.

Guardian Group chief executive officer (CEO) Ravi Tewari said the Trinidad and Tobago company was “very satisfied” with how its 30-year-old general insurance entity and ten-year life insurance business were performing, especially in the last two years.

Tewari was speaking last week at a cocktail reception Guardian hosted at Sweetfield Manor, Brittons Hill, St Michael.

“We are very, very happy with the results we have seen in the last couple of years. We have had very significant growth in 2013 and 2014. We are very proud of the quality of agent we have recruited over the past two years and with the quality of our operation and we are really looking forward to a tremendous 2015 and beyond,” he said.

The CEO said there was room for growth in the life insurance market here and that his company intended to capitalise on as much market share as possible.

“The Barbadian life insurance market is considerably smaller than the Trinidadian market but that in itself creates a lot of opportunity because we know that insurance is under-penetrated in the Barbados market to a greater degree than it is in the Trinidadian market,” he said.

“So it creates opportunities for us, so the challenge as an insurer is how do we reach the consumer? It must be that the consumer is demanding something that the industry is not as yet delivering so we need to find that sweet spot and deliver the products, the services and the means of delivery that the consumer wants and we are committed to doing that.

“There is a strong appetite for insurance, there is an appetite for good service and the challenge to an insurer is to make sure that the level of service meets the standards that the consumer expects.

“Going into the medium to long term, we are doing a considerable amount of investment in infrastructure and administrative efficiency at Guardian. Part of the effect of that would be a general lowering of the cost of insurance in all of the markets in which we operating.” (SC)

Source:
Nation News
Thursday January 22, 2015

http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/62278/barbados-guardian