Sun Life Financial Inc. is nearing an agreement to expand its partnership in Indonesia with Malaysian lender CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

CIMB, which owns a 91.5 per cent stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank CIMB Niaga, is in advanced talks with Sun Life over the so-called bancassurance deal in the Southeast Asian country, the people said. Under such an agreement, an insurer typically pays an upfront amount to sell its products in the bank’s branches. A pact could be valued at about US$400 million, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

CIMB was considering renegotiating terms of its bancassurance partnerships in Indonesia, including its arrangement with Hong Kong-based insurer AIA Group Ltd., Bloomberg News reported in October. The expanded Sun Life deal is poised to take over AIA partnership with CIMB, one of the people said.

An enhanced partnership could ensure Sun Life’s presence in Indonesia, which has about 274 million people. The Canadian insurer has had a bancassurance deal with CIMB in Indonesia since 2009. Sun Life took control of PT CIMB Sun Life in 2016. 

The Malaysian lender and Sun Life are finalizing details of a deal and talks could still fall apart, the people said.

Sun Life actively looks for opportunities that add scale, a representative said in response to Bloomberg queries, declining to comment further. A representative for CIMB declined to comment, while a representative for Bank CIMB Niaga didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.