AIA places premium on Philippine market

MANILA, Philippines - AIA Group chief executive and president Mark Tucker said the Philippines remains a very important market for AIA.

“The opportunities in the Philippines are unlimited, yet limited by our ability to close the protection gap,” Tucker said.

AIA is one of the largest Pan-Asian insurance and financial institutions, and the parent firm of the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life).

Tucker was referring among others to the Philippines’ low insurance contribution a percentage of the gross domestic product of 1.75 percent last year (lowest in the ASEAN) and the market penetration rate of 38.92 percent of population.

Tucker admitted the Philippines is a very important market for AIA, with immense market potentials coupled with huge protection gap.

Last year, Philam Life recorded a net income of over P5 billion, the highest among the country’s life insurers, and third best in terms of premium income.

AIA and Philam Life have also invested in real property and office space.

It is also involved in participating in huge infrastructure-related projects, both as lender or co-investor in a consortium.

“Nowhere in the world have we invested like this anywhere in Asia,” Tucker said, referring to investments made by both AIA and Philam Life.

Philam Life with its strong recall brand has one of the strongest premiere agency force locally with over 7,800 agents.

The agency force is targeted to expand to nearly 12,000 end 2016.

It has a bancassurance joint venture company with the Bank of the Philippines Island (BPI) or BPI Philam Assurance Corp., which registered premium income of P20.78 billion last year.

In fact, BPI Philam ranked fourth overall among the country’s 30-strong life insurance industry, behind Philam Life.

“Growth will continue this year, coming from many different factors, including the agency force, our joint venture with BPI, technology, and investments,” Tucker said during the formal launching yesterday of Genesis, Philam Life’s newest financial advisor or agency facility.

Genesis is a business and training center for Philam Life’s 300 MDRTs and other agency leaders located at the Citibank Center in Makati.

According to Philam Life chief agency officer Jay Ledesma,  Genesis provides financial advisors a great environment to learn, grow and succeed.

“Philam Life hopes to build the Agency of the Future, composed of professional Financial Advisors equipped with exceptional business knowledge and strict work ethics in fulfilling the mission of empowering Filipinos to achieve financial security and prosperity,” Ledesma said, adding that they were putting up another Genesis in Cebu this year.

Next year, the insurer will put similar facilities in either Davao, Iloilo and another in Metro Manila.

Philam Life has more than 60 branches and plans to increase to almost a hundred by next year.

Policyholders stood at a little over a million, including those generated by BPI Philam.