In a Financial Express (FE) report, he said a growing economy would drive a boom in insurance.
“Currently, Bangladesh’s life insurance market is worth around $1bn a year and we expect it will expand at least 50% in around 2020,” he said, adding that the economy has grown over 6% a year in the past decade and life insurance growth outpaced GDP.
Townsend, who visited Dhaka earlier this month, said that the Bangladesh market is one of the fastest growing on the continent, although its penetration remained low at 0.5%.
He expects growth in life insurance and increased penetration to be spurred by increasing partnerships between the banks and the insurers, added the FE report.
“We believe the biggest opportunity for the growth in the sector is bancassurance,” he said.
Bangladesh’s insurance sector still operates on a traditional model of selling insurance via agents.
MetLife Bangladesh currently has 15,000 agents, ranking number one in the country in terms of market share (28%) over the last 20 years, concentrated in the two major cities of Dhaka and Chittagong.
The insurer has emerged as the biggest investor in Bangladeshi government bonds.
MetLife currently offers 12 products there and has been promoting actuary education through scholarships. The insurer acquired American Life Insurance Company in 2010.
