Top 10 Costa Rica

INS teams up with HSBC banking unit

Costa Rica’s Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) and the Costa Rican banking unit of London-based HSBC (NYSE: HBC) have signed an agreement under which the bank will sell INS insurance products, state-run INS said in a press release.

Starting January, Banco HSBC Costa Rica will sell INS life insurance policies which are especially suitable for being distributed through the bancassurance channel, an INS spokesperson told BNamericas.

These life products are one of the 17 types of insurance policies which INS has designed for being distributed through financial institutions, the official said.

Banco HSBC already sells some INS products, including credit card insurance, according to the spokesperson.

One of INS’s goals for the next few years is to significantly grow the share of life and health insurance premiums of total premiums, Guillermo Constenla, executive president of the state-run insurer, previously told BNamericas.

Life premiums accounted for 11% of the US$506mn in premiums reported by INS in 2007, according to the institution’s financial statements.

Banco HSBC, which has some 200,000 clients, will sell INS products through the bank’s 38-branch network.