Ping An rolls dice on unpopular overseas banking model
Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, the world's second-biggest life insurer, aims to sell banking and investing services to its 50 million customers with a one-stop shopping model being abandoned by US and European companies.
Ping An, listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, expects banking, asset management and insurance to each contribute a third of profit within about 10 years. Five years after Citigroup Inc sold Travelers Life & Annuity and 17 months after Allianz SE agreed to sell Dresdner Bank, President Louis Cheung said Ping An will succeed in its bank-assurance ambition because it developed each business.
"Universal banking is dead, but we are not the same," he said in an interview in his Shenzhen office. "We built from scratch each of our businesses, and we have such a young client group that grows continuously during the process."
