Bancassurance in a digital era

The implementation of bancassurance activity in the banking field contributes to the strengthening of the competitive environment, the development of new products in insurance and the higher satisfaction of the consumer's needs. The strategic priorities of banks are to increase business protection by adding new products to their portfolios, according customer's needs. The distribution of insurance in the bancassurance system is a future solution and will continue to develop on the Romanian market as well. Bancassurance is the main distribution channel in many countries, accounting for more than 50% of life insurance products (eg France, Italy, Spain, Austria), in Portugal the share goes up to 80% and in Romania is around 30%. Among the aspects needed to develop this service, bank representatives propose both the diversification of types of insurance sold through banks, as well as the growth of consumer financial education development and digitalization. This paper aims to highlight different perspectives to relaunch bancassurance activity according to changes from customer behavior and the identification of factors which contributing to the sustainability of bancassurance in digital environment. In addition, will be presented a comparison of the internet penetration rate in the world, the categories of clients using online banking services.