We investigated these questions with a team that included Rachele Anconetani, Jessica Baro, Gennaro De Novellis, and Raffaele Turazzo. Using a survey targeting banks and insurers which represent around 80% of total premiums, as well as four focus groups held at SDA Bocconi School of Management, we explored the bancassurance trend in greater depth.
For the majority of financial institutions, the shift to bancassurance is driven by strategic needs rather than by cost-cutting. Institutions with strategic motivations reported better results than those with other aims.
The conglomerate model, combining a banking group and an insurance group, is used by a minority of institutions (15%), but it achieves the best results, with significant revenue upsurges reported in half of the cases. A relative majority of banks (39%) distribute products from multiple brands, although in two-thirds of these cases, revenue growth remains moderate. Banks offering a limited number of products (1 or 2) tailored to SMEs struggle to achieve substantial revenue increases.
Generally, banks with broader portfolios of insurance products for SMEs are also those that invest more in branch staff training, so they find the transition to bancassurance less challenging.
Investments in technology (aimed at better integration between banks and insurers) and in training are strongly correlated with revenue rises, while marketing investments show a moderate impact.
For insurers, the most common organizational model (71%), which also yields the best results, is a partnership based on a commercial agreement. Joint ventures are less frequent (14%) and tend to be less profitable.
In this context, focus proves beneficial: insurers that see the most significant revenue growth in bancassurance for SMEs are those where SME policies make up over 25% of their portfolio, but they also maintain a limited range of offerings (between 3 and 5 categories).