By Francis Chan

OCBC Bank can now grow its bancassurance business across the Causeway, thanks to a recent reform of Malaysia's financial sector.

The bank said yesterday that its Malaysian unit will start distributing products from Great Eastern Holdings' Malaysian unit, Great Eastern Life Assurance.

This latest move follows the announcement in April by Malaysia's central bank of the lifting of restrictions on foreign insurance companies partnering banks to distribute insurance products.

Great Eastern - OCBC's insurance subsidiary - is the largest insurance group in terms of asset value and market share in both Singapore and Malaysia.

By leveraging its Great Eastern relationship to cross-sell in Singapore, OCBC managed to increase its bancassurance market share to 46 per cent in Singapore, up from 40 per cent in 2007.

OCBC hopes to duplicate this success at its Malaysian franchise - touted as the group's second-largest market - following Malaysia's liberalisation of rules.

'We look forward to transferring successful business models and product solutions from Singapore to Malaysia,' said Mr Andrew Lee, OCBC's head of global consumer financial services.

'Our customers in Malaysia will soon have access to a wide array of bancassurance products and services that meet their needs.'

Previous collaboration between OCBC Malaysia and Great Eastern Life Assurance focused on the marketing of OCBC credit cards and home loans.

Today, OCBC-Great Eastern co-branded credit cards make up a quarter of the total number of cards issued by OCBC Malaysia, while mortgages sold through the insurer made up 8 per cent of total sales last year.

OCBC said that Great Eastern Life Assurance products selected for distribution will cater to the different lifestyle and life-stage needs of the bank's Malaysian retail customers through its 29 bank branches there.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.