Hang Seng trains branch staff with eye on sector expansion

Hang Seng Bank will from today channel its insurance products through its 103 full branches in a bid to expand in the sector.

Hang Seng Insurance director and general manager Mok Wai-kin said the bank had trained 560 of its branch managers, assistant branch managers and customer services officers as agents in life- and general-insurance products.

The bank expected to open 10 more full branches in airport railway stations by the end of the year. The bank's 42 mini-branches in Mass Transit Railway stations were too small to sell insurance products.

'We [Hang Seng Insurance] found that only 10 per cent of the bank's clients have bought the insurance products offered by the same group,' the firm's deputy general manager Chan Kin-por said.

'We consider this is too low and we think there are a lot of business opportunities from the bank's clients.' He said the insurer would promote a wide range of individual products this year such as personal accident, hospital care, travel insurance, motor insurance and domestic helper insurance.

'In the past we have relied on corporate clients. However, we found that the business of corporate clients, such as the employee's compensation plans, has dropped due to the economic downturn,' Mr Chan said.