Mr Daling expects Sanlam policyholders to be issued with bank smart cards offering a menu of investment products, and access to policy surpluses by the turn of the century.The banks also hope that consolidation will stem the flow of business to new foreign rivals.
The company even raised the proportion of policyholders needed to vote in favour of demutualisation to three-quarters in order to deter carpetbaggers.
The company used to say, a little smugly, that it pursued policyholders' long-term interests more assiduously than listed insurers because it did not have to worry about dividends.
This latest discovery may have left depositors and policyholders wondering what other perks Japan's gangsters enjoy.
But even as jubilant domestic non-life insurers prepare to enter the sector, the FSA has quietly told them that, for the time being, they will not be allowed to sell third-sector products after all, except through their tiny life-insurance subsidiaries.The FSA claims that it is postponing deregulation only because it is still drawing up guidelines to protect "third-sector" policyholders.
Ultimately, though, it is existing policyholders who are going to pay the price for the industry's errors of the past.
In the most optimistic scenario, it was always going to take time for those individual policyholders to feel the benefits of Obamacare.
For those who drive relatively little, Metromile, an insurer based in San Francisco, simply charges by the mile.Discovery, a South African health insurer that has expanded to Europe and Asia, has 3m policyholders who have opted for a similar scheme.
But when pugnacious policyholders call after the 20th of the month, the probability that they are acting decreases slightly, since funds from the previous month's paycheque may be dwindling.
The Monday-morning insurance claims, it turns out, are slightly more likely to be fraudulent than Tuesday claims, since weekends make it easier for policyholders who stage accidents to assemble friends as false witnesses.
The clause, which originated in marine policies in the 17th century, allows policyholders to recover some of the cost incurred in efforts to prevent a loss.
