Branch sales heads, sales executives, agency supervisors and sales consultants from all districts of Sri Lanka packed the BMICH to pay tribute to the star performers at a glittering gala awards function themed: "One Team, One Victory, We are One" for their role in the company’s achievement of Rs 5.7 billion in premium income last year.

Addressing the event as Guest of Honour, the Chairman of the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka, (IBSL) Gamini Wickremesinghe said: "Ceylinco Life has played a lead role in fostering professionalism and best practices among the company’s 5000 strong sales team. This is to be commended because selling a product like life insurance, which involves a close involvement in the lives of your policyholders, must be done with great responsibility."

Pointing out that the penetration of life insurance in Sri Lanka is still around 7 per cent, he said this is something that all the companies involved in selling insurance as well as the policymakers should look at.

"Life insurance is an essential safety net for the community and is important to the rich and the poor alike," Wickremesinghe said. "In this context, I am pleased to note that Ceylinco Life has recently launched an initiative to increase the penetration of life insurance through a mass-communication campaign that generates awareness about the importance of insurance, instead of taking the traditional approach of promoting specific insurance products. If successful, this campaign should help expand the market for all players, and is therefore a commendable initiative."

Ceylinco Life Chief Executive Director R. Renganathan said that 2006 had been a prosperous year for the company. "We are now the confirmed leaders of our market, and our focus is to be on par with the top insurance companies in Asia," he said.

Renganathan disclosed that Ceylinco Life has commenced staff exchange programmes with several top insurance companies, including Nippon Life, Daichi Life, Cathay Life, Great Eastern and Thai Life. Later this year, a similar arrangement would be made with Samsung Life, he said, noting that by sharing their knowledge and experience, Ceylinco Life would improve its IT capabilities and processes.

A feature of the awards ceremony was the strong representation of branches in the north, east, hill country and deep south of Sri Lanka in the company’s honours list. The awards presented for performance excellence included challenge trophies, gold, silver and bronze medals, cash awards, certificates and overseas holidays.