In a letter sent to IFAs on 30 November, the insurer said it would be withdrawing all products co-branded with National General Insurance (NGi) – its Dubai-based partner – and would no longer be active in the United Arab Emirate market.
The letter explained that in November last year the Aviva Group announced a new strategy to focus on its twelve core markets and that the Middle East is not one of them. While these core markets are not named in the letter, it is understood that these are eight in Europe, namely the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Ireland, and Russia, as well as North America, Canada, India and China.
Aviva said its decision to pull out of the Middle East will not affect any existing policy holders but that IFAs should accept the letter, as per its distribution agreement, as its 30 day written notice to close to new business for all the existing Aviva NGi products.
The partnership with NGi was agreed in 2007 and marked the company’s entrance into the UAE market. According to the Aviva website, the deal was aimed at producing protection, investment and savings products – both regular and lump sum – for both the local and UK expatriate market. The policies issued in the UAE were insured by NGi and administered by Aviva.
NGi is part of Emirates NBD which, according its website has the largest asset base of any bank operating in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. According its own latest figures, the bank’s assets stood at AED281.6bn ($76.6bn, £49bn, €57bn) at the end of December 2009.
