HNBA’s advisor, partnership channels drive 26% growth

HNB Assurance PLC (HNBA) delivered another year of outstanding financial performance, securing a 7.5 percent market share and moving a step closer to achieving its ambitious target of 10 percent market share by 2026. 

This success was a result of the company’s well-structured strategies, focused on sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape, which yielded impressive results, with its gross written premium (GWP) growing by 26 percent compared to the previous year.

Over the past four years, HNBA has maintained an average growth rate of 26 percent, consistently outperforming the industry. 

Lasitha Wimalaratne	Harindra Ramasinghe	Sanesh Fernando

In terms of growth, HNBA’s proactive investment strategy resulted in an 8 percent growth in investment income, reaching Rs.6.9 billion, while funds under management saw a 26 percent increase. HNBA paid net benefits and claims totalling Rs.2.9 billion. The total assets of the company expanded by 24 percent to Rs.53.4 billion, primarily driven by increased financial investments. Additionally, total life insurance contract liabilities grew by 25 percent to Rs.38.6 billion, following a surplus transfer of Rs.1.3 billion to shareholders.

HNBA CEO Lasitha Wimalaratne stated, “Having effectively navigated challenges while prioritising customer-centric solutions and driving solid business expansion, we are confident in reaching our 10 percent market share goal by 2026. Last year was an outstanding year for us, where, despite an increase in operating expenses, due to IT infrastructure and software investment, we achieved a profit before tax of Rs.2.3 billion and a profit after tax of Rs.1.6 billion. These achievements are the result of the dedication and resilience of our two incredible sales teams, where we produced a record 222 MDRT qualifiers along with the contribution of all our support teams, whose efforts have been instrumental in driving this growth.”

Chief Business Officer/GM Advisor Distribution Channel Harindra Ramasinghe noted, “I’m extremely proud to note that the advisor distribution channel reached a 21 percent YoY increase in GWP and 21 percent YoY new business premium growth, along with 87 MDRT qualifiers for the year 2024.”

Chief Business Officer/GM Partnerships Sanesh Fernando stated, “Our bancassurance channel continues to be the ‘best’ in the industry, securing the top spot for the fourth consecutive year. With a GWP contribution of 48 percent to the company and Rs.1.47 billion in new business premiums, which reflects a 38 percent growth from last year, a 29 percent in overall GWP and an incredible 112 percent surge in MRP and DTP business, we witnessed a strong momentum across all segments. The alternate channel also saw a phenomenal 64 percent growth, contributing 31 percent to the total channel’s growth.”