BLC Bank and Libano-Suisse Insurance have presented the first fruits of a new product partnership that enhances the choices of consumer loan customers in Lebanon. Along with a line of bancassurance products, the two companies on July 18 introduced a jointly developed unemployment credit insurance that protects buyers of BLC consumer loans against inability to meet payment obligations because of loss of employment.
The new insurance product is provided without extra charge to new loan applicants who satisfy requirements related to their age and duration of employment. As customers do not have to pay a premium for the credit insurance on top of the 7.75 and 9.25 percent flat interest rates which BLC currently charges for new consumer loans, the unemployment credit insurance is an alternative to life insurance policies which many banks have been requiring loan customers to purchase at additional expense to their loan costs.
According to BLC Bank marketing manager Maya Margie, the bank dropped the practice of having life insurance policies for customers covering the amount of their loan three years ago, because the cost of the program was over proportional to the number of actual claims. Working with Libano-Suisse Insurance, the bank for one year had been researching the possibilities to implement the unemployment credit insurance, which is now offered by BLC as the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Middle East, Margie said, “in line with our objective of being leaders instead of followers”.
In 2004, the BLC customer base grew by 12 %, and its deposit base and portfolio of personal loans increased by 24 and 38 percent, respectively as the year saw BLC Bank continue achieving its recovery from huge past losses to profitability.
In conjunction with the launch of the unemployment credit insurance, BLC and Liban-Suisse introduced six new bancassurance products under the brand name Awlawiyati. The range entails car, home, accident, term life, retirement and child education plans that are sold over the counter at BLC branches. The bank established a new insurance broking subsidiary, BLC services, to manage its insurance activities in accordance to Lebanese law.
