EFU Life and HABIBMETRO to provide Takaful Protection to Roshan Digital Accountholders

EFU Life Assurance Ltd and HABIBMETRO have joined hands to offer EFU Roshan Protection Plan for the Roshan Digital Accountholders of HABIBMETRO.

The agreement signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Ahmed Shah Duranni (Group Executive Retail Banking HABIBMETRO), Mr. Mohammed Ali Ahmed (Deputy Managing Director EFU Life), Ms. Sarah Irfan (Head of Wealth Management & Liabilities HABIBMETRO), Ms. Nilofer Sohail (Head of Channel Strategy & Execution EFU Life) along with other representatives from both the organizations.

Roshan Digital Account is a complete and innovative digital banking solution that integrates the Pakistani diaspora with Pakistan’s banking and payment system – from opening a bank account online to offering various innovative services to the Non Resident Pakistanis (NRPs) for themselves and their families.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has, on various occasions, termed overseas Pakistanis as the ‘most patriotic’ and has highlighted the commendable contribution made by the NRPs towards the financial inclusion and the economic advancement of the country. “EFU Roshan Protection Plan” is a complete takaful protection plan which has been designed keeping in mind the broader vision of the Government of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan. This is an entirely digital plan which does not require any paper documentation and gives peace of mind to the NRPs by providing them with innovative offerings such as Income protection, Health protection for their families, and preventive health measures for both the NRPs and their families in Pakistan.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Mohammed Ali Ahmed said, “The RDA platform provides various facilities to NRPs and we identified insurance as one of the needs that could be addressed via this initiative. Since RDA was launched, we have been engaged with various stakeholders, including international organizations, who will be providing their services to make this offering unique and need based for NRPs”.

Mr. Ahmed Shah Duranni concluded, “This proposition will further strengthen our HABIBMETRO Roshan Digital Account offering for Overseas Pakistanis and those Pakistanis with declared assets abroad, who are looking for a comprehensive digital banking solution that enables them to conduct banking services and avail insurance solutions from anywhere in the world.”

EFU Life Assurance Ltd, the leading private life insurance provider in the country, has been conferred with ‘International Environment, Health & Safety Award’ in the category of ‘Support for Health Care Organizations’ at the 7th International Summit & Awards on Environment, Health and Safety organized by The Professionals Network and Ethical Business Update (EBU).

Ms. Evelyn D. Abrogena, Head of CSR, EFU Life Assurance Ltd., received the award on behalf of the Company. The award recognizes Company’s efforts towards the health sector and its role for environment safety.

EFU Life has been at the forefront of promoting and contributing to the causes of healthcare, education and environment and believes in playing a pivotal role in building a positive relationship with the society in which it operates. EFU Life has joined hands with numerous renowned non-governmental organizations for a safe and healthy Pakistan.

EFU Life is pleased to announce a distribution of 80% of its 2020 surplus from EFU Hemayah (Window Takaful Operations) amongst its Individual Family Takaful Participants for the year ended 31st December 2020. This is the Company’s 4th consecutive year of distribution. The surplus will be distributed in the form of extra units to all active participants, in proportion to their respective Takaful donations contributed towards the IFPTF (Individual Family Participants Takaful Fund) by each participant.

EFU Life has the distinction of being the first window Takaful operator in the country when we began our operations in February 2015 under a dedicated brand – Hemayah. We offer a range of takaful solutions focusing on Takaful protection, savings, education and retirement. EFU Life has proven to be a leader in providing financial solutions to the public. With a dedicated focus on promoting Takaful in Pakistan, EFU Life is on the path to becoming the premier Takaful provider in the country, while at the same time being a catalyst in the continued progress of the Takaful industry in Pakistan.

EFU Life Assurance Limited, the leading life insurance provider in the country, has been awarded ‘Silver’ at the Virtual Effie Awards Ceremony 2021 in the category of ‘Branded Content’ for Humrahi, a digital web-series. This is the 5th recognition for ‘Humrahi’ after winning the ‘Gold Effie’ for Season 1 and international wins at Dragons of Asia for ‘Best Campaign in the Country’ and ‘Best Use of Media across all countries’ along with MAA Globes 2019 win for ‘Best Use of Media category’.

The branded content category recognizes brands for efforts to effectively reach its target audience through the creation of original branded content and how it relates back to the overall brand and business goals; how effective the brand was in media planning and distribution, and how the content was shared by the audience and the results achieved for the brand and business. The category is contested across all industries and is not limited to a specific marketing medium.

EFU Life launched ‘Humrahi’ on Digital, with a targeted approach to reach its audience to change the perception of life insurance amongst the millennials through an unconventional message of life planning, and with the key objective of positioning it as a smart choice for savings and future planning.

The Effie Awards were launched in 1968 by the New York American Marketing Association as an awards program to honor the most effective advertising efforts. Effie Pakistan is a not-for-profit initiative between Pakistan Advertisers Society and Effie Worldwide. The annual award is presented to recognize the most significant achievement in marketing communications: ideas that work.

EFU Life had partnered with Mullen Lowe & Rauf Pakistan for creative strategy and execution and Mediavest Pakistan for media planning and execution.

Recently, the EFU Life team participated in SummerHack 2021 – a global insurance Design Thinking ideathon organized by Cookhouse Labs, in collaboration with InsurLab Germany and msg global. SummerHack 2021 was a 2-day ideathon with 100+ innovators who were represented by 12 teams from 16 countries from APAC, EMEA, and the Americas.

Based on the challenges faced by customers due to the pandemic, this year’s theme was “New Times, New Experience” and the participating teams were asked to prepare a blueprint for a product or service idea. The global teams raced against the clock to develop new solutions to the theme, and winners were acknowledged based on their creativity, innovativeness, and business plan feasibility.

The EFU Life team was headed by Mr. Zain Ibrahim, and accompanied by Mr. Ashfaque Ahmed, Mr. Arshad Iqbal, and Mr. Raza Hassan. Their proposed innovative solution was called ‘Bread Protects’ and aimed at tackling the ‘Access to Insurance’ challenge to cater to the underserved population segment. The solution was awarded the title of ‘People’s Choice (APAC & EMEA)’. EFU Life was the only company to represent Pakistan at this global event.

Inspired by a test kitchen, Cookhouse Labs is a leading insurance innovation lab offering a collaborative space to the global community of insurance professionals with a vision to foster co-creation and ideation to solve industry problems using the Design Thinking methodology. Through this, they aim to collectively develop an ecosystem of digital excellence and strive to make insurance better globally. Cookhouse Labs was founded in 2017 and currently has offices in Canada and the Netherlands.

EFU Life Assurance and JS Bank have joined hands and reached new heights by launching innovative offerings to protect individuals and their families from any and all financial risks when it comes to their lives and health.

An agreement between the two entities was signed at the EFU Life Head Office between President & CEO JS Bank – Basir Shamsie and MD & CEO EFU Life – Taher G. Sachak, in the presence of senior executives from both teams. The event saw the launch of EFU Cover Shield Plan which covers debt payments in case of demise of the insured while EFU Employee Protector Plan provides employed individuals with a “Salary Continuation” feature.

Speaking at the occasion Basir Shamsie stated, “Healthcare has long been our pivotal focus area. We have always strived to give back to the community we serve through innovative products that safeguard their safety and well-being. We are pleased that our long-standing association with EFU Life has enabled us to provide top-notch services and offerings to our customers and their loved ones.”

Sharing his thoughts Taher G. Sachak added, “We are pleased to further enhance our relationship with JS Bank through the addition of these new innovative products. Customer segmentation is gaining more importance than ever since the needs of the Customers are constantly evolving. These are highly relevant products, especially in the current times, in the context of financial protection and planning for Bank’s Customers”.

With the commitment demonstrated by the management from both organizations to enrich and enhance the livelihood of its people, the goal to provide innovative healthcare in mitigating life and health risk has become easier.

To accelerate digital payments in Pakistan, EFU life signed an agreement with National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) and has become the first Insurance company for enabling digital payments through NIFT ePay which is the epayment gateway offered by NIFT, one of the largest payment processors in Pakistan for enabling digital payments (mobile/electronic commerce payments) through NIFT’s DFS platform.

NIFT ePay launched account based e-commerce payment platform which is gradually being adopted by leading businesses in Pakistan in several business verticals. The flexible pricing regime and the ability to customize solutions to enable payments across various use cases is a key upside for the NIFT’s epayment gateway. NIFT ePay has enabled EFU Life’s policyholders to pay their insurance/takaful premiums directly through their bank accounts or wallets on EFU Life’s website.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Haider Wahab, CEO – NIFT and Mr. Zain Ibrahim, COO – EFU Life at the head office of EFU Life. In the presence of Mr. Ashfaque Ahmed General Manager IT EFU Life, Mr. Ahmar Hasan , Senior Manager Innovations EFU Life along with Fawad Abdul Kader Head of Digital Financial Service and Mr. Imran Korai , Head of Business Development NIFT.

Speaking on the occasion, CEO of NIFT, Mr. Haider Wahab, said “EFU Life is another unique and exciting use case opening up digital payments and services going live with NIFT’s ePayment Gateway. We are happy to offer convenience of digital payments for the customers of EFU Life. We believe comprehensive and innovative digital payments benefiting all and contributing to the financial inclusion and to achieving a digital economy. This is exactly the vision that was behind NIFT ePay and it is very heartening to see its actual manifestation in the market.”

Mr. Zain Ibrahim, COO – EFU Life, stated; “We are delighted to bring NIFT onboard as our digital payments service provider. This partnership will provide crucial support to our keen focus on adopting robust technology solutions to enhance our customer’s overall experience. We will continue to lead our niche in offering convenience and hassle-free policy services, and digitizing payments is one such step enabling our clients to make and receive payments digitally. We are thus excited to reach another milestone in our innovative service journey”.

PAKISTAN, Karachi, 30th March, 2021 Faysal Bank Limited (FBL) has Launched Manzil Account, a regular saving instrument designed to encourage customers to save regularly towards achievement of their financial goals. Customers will have the flexibility to choose their saving contribution and tenor in line with their financial plans, with the option to pay on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis. In order to ensure that our customers achieve their financial aspirations, this account provides built-in Takaful coverage in the event of an unforeseen eventuality.

The Takaful coverage included in the proposition, has been structured in partnership with EFU Life Window Takaful operations, one of the largest private sector Takaful providers in the industry.

The signing ceremony was attended by Mr. Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti, Head Retail Banking, Faysal Bank Ltd. and Mr. Tahir G. Sachak, MD & Chief Executive Officer, EFU Life Window Takaful Operations along with the core product teams.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti said, “This collaboration will allow us to further expand our menu of products and offer our customers a chance to avail this unique saving proposition designed to facilitate better financial planning and a goal-oriented approach to saving.”

Speaking at the event, Mr. Tahir G. Sachak said, “EFU Life is committed in offering unique and innovative Takaful solutions to the masses of Pakistan. This partnership with Faysal Bank is important as it is linked to our vision of embedding protection through various channels, aimed to cover the financial risks of the customers in unfortunate events like death and accidents, safeguarding livelihood of their loved-ones”.