Head of New Business Underwriting

FWD Insurance; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

FWD Takaful Berhad in Malaysia invites experienced underwriting professionals to lead risk management and operations in a dynamic takaful environment. You will localise and maintain underwriting policies for FWDIB and FWDT, ensure alignment with regulatory requirements and Shariah governance, and provide insights to pricing and product teams.

Your role oversees daily underwriting operations, drives process excellence, ensures data integrity, and maintains budget discipline while partnering with

Responsibilities

• Localise, maintain and implement the Underwriting Policy for FWDIB and FWDT.
• Align new business and underwriting with regulatory requirements and group standards.
• Exercise underwriting authority within defined manuals with escalation controls.
• Establish underwriting risk assessment frameworks and ensure consistency.
• Provide underwriting assumptions and portfolio insights to Actuarial and Product teams for pricing.
• Monitor industry trends and emerging risks to inform strategies.
• Provide senior management with insights and recommendations on underwriting performance.
• Prepare and present periodic reviews of underwriting experience and guidelines to governance committees.
• Ensure underwriting processes for FWDT are endorsed by the Shariah Committee where required.
• Act as Data Owner for sensitive health information, ensuring adherence to Data Privacy PDPA.

Job description

About FWD Group

FWD Group (1828.HK) is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business that serves approximately 40 million customers across 10 markets, including BRI Life in Indonesia. FWD's customer-led and tech-enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience. Established in 2013, the company operates in some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world with a vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD Group is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 1828.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com

About FWD Takaful Berhad

FWD Takaful Berhad ("FWD Takaful") is a takaful provider in Malaysia that offers family takaful services. FWD Takaful is licensed under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 and is regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia. FWD Takaful is a takaful business unit of FWD Group.

Visit https://www.fwd.com.my

Join us

We're proud to be a company that encourages and nurtures fearless innovation in achieving our vision of changing the way people feel about takaful. Our teams come from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds because we value developing a truly diverse pool of talent that brings different perspectives and experiences. Our values – committed, innovative, proactive, open, and caring – define who we are and what we do as we work together to bring our vision to life, every single day.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Underwriting Risk Management

• Accountable for the localisation, maintenance, and implementation of the Underwriting Policy for FWDIB and FWDT, ensuring guidelines align with each local entity's risk appetite, local regulations, and Group Standards.


• Ensure the new business and underwriting department is aligned with company goals, regulatory requirements, FWD Malaysia standards, and FWD Group standards.


• Exercise underwriting authority within the limits defined in the respective FWDIB and FWDT Delegated Authority Manuals, with appropriate escalation controls to prevent authority breaches.


• Establish underwriting risk assessment frameworks and ensure consistent application across underwriting decisions.


• Provide underwriting assumptions and relevant portfolio insights to Actuarial and Product teams to support robust product pricing and development.


• Monitor industry trends and emerging risks to inform and adjust underwriting strategies.


• Provide senior management with insights and recommendations on underwriting performance.


• Prepare and present periodic reviews of underwriting experience, guidelines, and recommendations to the relevant governance committee for deliberation and approval.


• Ensure all underwriting processes for FWDT are endorsed by the Shariah Committee where required.


• Act as the Data Owner for sensitive customer health information collected during underwriting, ensuring strict adherence to the Data Privacy Policy and PDPA.

New Business and Underwriting Operations

• Oversee daily underwriting operations, ensuring efficient workflow, committed service levels, high accuracy, and a positive distribution and customer experience throughout the purchase journey.


• Ensure operational readiness for new products, including obtaining the required Product Committee and Shariah Committee sign-offs on underwriting rules before launch.


• Develop and implement best practices and procedures to optimise underwriting operations.


• Monitor and analyse underwriting performance metrics, adjusting strategies as needed to achieve desired outcomes.


• Own the underwriting systems from a business perspective, ensuring compliance with Technology Risk Management standards and data integrity requirements.


• Manage the underwriting department budget, ensuring cost-effective operations.

Risk, Regulatory Compliance and Control

• Act as the First Line of Defence Risk Owner for Underwriting, ensuring operational compliance with AML/CFT policies, Fair Treatment of Customers, and data privacy requirements.


• Act as the functional owner for underwriting fraud management, implementing the Anti-Fraud Policy to detect anti-selection and protect the Insurance Fund and Takaful Participants' Risk Fund.


• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, internal policies, fair customer treatment, financial-crime controls, fraud management and data privacy obligations.


• Maintain audit readiness and ensure timely remediation of audit, compliance, operational risk and control findings.