THE VIABILITY OF BANCASSURANCE: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND SIGNIFICANCE IN CAMEROON

Ardently, the purpose of this paper is to identify the critical drivers and viability of bancassurance as a distribution channel of insurances. In this light, a more theoretical and realistic industry outlook is defined, by taking into account the global comparison of bancassurance with respect to its different business models. The descriptive section is extended by an analysis of previous literature. It also provides an in-depth understanding of a country-specific development and the driving factors of the bancassurance system that need to be sought by the banks and the insurance companies, to optimize the structure and efficiency of the distribution channels. It highlights that credit institutions usually seek to obtain additional revenue by capitalizing the potential of their networks, initially configured based on their own marketing policies; while the insurance companies are interested to diversify without any significant capital investment, so that the products and services offered have access to a large number of potential customers. Equally, it accentuates that bancassurance is considered in this analysis as the original mode for the distribution of insurance products by the banking institution, with financial predominance as the chief characteristic of the banks in this recent time. Since it is contemporarily envisaged that banks are installed like actors with whole share in the distribution of insurance products, just like general agents and insurance brokers. In this perspective, the paper is not only based on the description of the various strategies of bancassurance, but readily assesses the extent to which bancassurance is embraced and practised in the Cameroonian financial system. From this, it proffers and reaffirms that in Cameroon, the sale of insurance contracts by banks is a reality, in spite of, the poor insurance culture and the lack of confidence by the populations to insurance products. More importantly, it highlights the potentials, prospects and significance of the bancassurance market to Cameroon, owing to the increasing solvency rate of its insurance companies especially with the advent of the CIMA code, which has greatly led to the reconstruction of the insurance companies and banks.