Pioneer Life posts P444-million premium income for Q1

MANILA, Philippines - Pioneer Life Inc. has reported the sale of first year premiums worth P294.8 million and a gross premium income of P443.9 million in the first three months of 2012.

First year premiums are newly sold policies while gross premiums are first year premiums plus recurring business from earlier sold policies.

According to Pioneer Life president and chief executive officer Lorenzo O. Chan the original target gross premiums for the first quarter of 2012 was P441.38 million.

 “We are still on track (to meet full year targets),” Chan said.

The target for the whole of 2012 is P1.42 billion, or a conservative target of 19 percent from the P1.19 billion recorded last year.

In 2010, Pioneer Life gained total premiums worth P987 million, which ranked 13th among the 33 life insurers in the Philippines. The Insurance Commission (IC) has not released the 2011 official ratings, but regulators said that only the top four or five slots had experienced changes.

Chan said they have done relatively well despite the unfavorable external conditions such as the financial crisis being experienced in the eurozone, the economic woes being experienced in the US, and the low interest rates prevailing in both the global as well as domestic financial markets.

Interest rates have a cyclical nature, which, in turn, influence the way investments are made. Insurers in the Philippines are required by law to invest heavily in fixed income instruments, which suffer in a low interest rate environment.

 “Responsive innovative firms like Pioneer will continue to seize such opportunities to pioneer new products, test new approaches, and simplify the processes as we have always been doing,” the life insurer chief executive said.