In a recent article, it was reported that OCBC's mortgage insurance plans are a big hit with homebuyers as the bank refunds premiums if buyers are alive at end of the 20-year home loan. According to the bank’s spokesperson, despite a slowdown in the property market, the number of new customers who bought these two mortgage insurance plans (single premium and regular premium version) from the bank went up by more than 60 per cent in the first nine months of this year.
In my opinion, the plan is simply an endowment where the sum assured is reducing in accordance to the loan amount and the maturity value is the premiums paid. It is nothing significantly new, except that most mortgage insurance are generally term plans that accumulate no cash values.
This comes as no surprise as the bancassurance market share in Singapore has been growing in leaps ...
