Local AXA unit targets 40% growth in premiums

MANILA, Philippines - The local unit of French insurance giant AXA said it is targeting a 40-percent growth in total premiums in 2010 to roughly P6.16 billion, from P4.4 billion last year.

In the first three months of 2010, AXA Philippines generated new business worth P349.4 million, up 87 percent from P174 million last year.

AXA Philippines president Rien Hermans said the main drivers for the bullish growth target are the introduction of new products that will fit a wider set of client class, an improved tax environment with the reduction of the five-percent premium tax to three percent, a fixed rate of the documentary stamp tax (DST), higher level of appreciation of life insurance, and a healthier economic environment.

Hermans said AXA Philippines would introduce a new life insurance product that will be as simple as acquiring a personal accident (PA) policy but still having the features of the traditional policy.

“We will also introduce new products that will cater to the 25- to 45-year-old age groups, considered among the best time to start a personal wealth approach. “They are just starting to earn a living, they are already in a position to allocate funds from investments and protection,” he said.

AXA Philippines has reoriented its approach towards being customer-centric. “We would like our financial executives (FEs) and sales agents to be able to discuss with their clients and prospective clients AXA Philippines product, what the client needs, what the client wants, and be able to fit it to the clients requirements,” Hermans explained.

Roughly 60-percent of its client base are considered high networth, another 20-percent are classified as middle income, and the remaining 20 percent as lower income.

AXA has 80,000 policies-in-force, an agency base of over a thousand, and 23 branches nationwide.

But the strength of AXA is its partnership with top leader Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), which has allowed the insurer to sell its policies within the branch network of the commercial bank.

In fact, it was through bancassurance, or the right to sell its policies through Metrobank, that helped catapult AXA Philippines as second best in terms of total premiums in 2007.

It has since slipped to fourth due to the debt crisis and the lack of a strong distribution network.