Pressures for Change in the Australian and South African Insurance Markets: A Comparison of Two Companies

Abstract

Since the 1980s a wave of demutualizations has occurred across the financial services sector from stock exchanges to building societies, savings and loans associations and insurers. In both Australia and South Africa, this has had a marked effect on the life insurance markets that had been dominated by mutual life insurers for 150 years. This article adopts a case study approach to analyse the key drivers of organizational change. It examines the experiences of the Australian Mutual Provident (Australia's oldest and largest life insurance mutual) and Sanlam (the second-largest mutual life office in South Africa) as they proceeded down the path to demutualization. Firm-specific, market-specific and country-specific forces are identified as placing pressure on existing mutual structures.