Bancassurance: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis and Performance for Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the internal and external factors that affect the performance of bancassurance in commercial banks in Kenya. The internal and external factors were obtained by performing a SWOT Analysis. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats obtained would help in the strategic planning of bancassurance by managers of commercial banks in Kenya to improve the performance of bancassurance. Primary data was obtained from commercial banks in Kenya and data analysed using SPSS. Results reveal some of the strengths of bancassurance to be the growing insurable population and an increase in middle class segment in Kenya; the weaknesses of bancassurance to be an unsupportive Information Technology culture and the poor goodwill of customers towards insurance; the opportunities of bancassurance to be the enormous database on clients and the liberalization of the insurance sector and the threats of bancassurance to be the current thinking and work culture in the banks and a fierce competition from other providers such as brokers. The study also showed that the performance of bancassurance is on its early stages of growth. It found that bancassurance has recently been taken up by most banks most of which have been functioning for only one year. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats identified will be used in the strategic plan of the banks to improve performance both directly in terms of financial growth and indirectly through efficiency, cost and market structure.