Sun Life, AXA Life lead in premium income in 2014

MANILA, Philippines - Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. reported a total premium income of P30.7 billion in 2014, slightly higher than the P29.6 billion in 2013 which enabled it to retain leadership in the country’s life insurance industry.

Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp. (AXA Life) reported total premium income of P18.35 billion, also slightly better than the P18.2 billion in premiums reported in 2013.

AXA Life is a joint venture bancassurance company between Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. and AXA of France.

Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life), which reported total premium income of P18.3 billion, settled at third place.

Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc said the more significant development last year was the entry of Generali Pilipinas Life Assurance Corp. into the top 10 performers.

In 2013, Generali Pilipinas ranked 13th overall with total premium income of P3.9 billion. It surged to to ninth best performer last year, with premium income of P4.98 billion.

“Generali Pilipinas is the only insurer whose traditional insurance production (P4.5 billion) is greater than its variable sale (P432 million),” Dooc said in a press briefing yesterday.

Generali Pilipinas is a joint venture among BDO Unibank Inc., Assicurazioni Generali of Italy and Jerneh Asia Berhad of Malaysia.

Pru Life Insurance of the UK remained fourth best with total premiums of P15.4 billion, while BPI Philam Life Assurance Corp. was fifth last year.

BPI Philam, a joint venture bancassurance firm between Philam Life and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), reported premium income of P14.4 billion, or roughly P200 million better than the P14.2 billion reported in 2013.

Another bancassurance company, Sunlife Grepa Financial, reported premium income of P7 billion last year, a 41-percent drop from P11.9 billion in 2013.

Manulife Chinabank Life Assurance Corp. was 10th best performer among the 32 life insurers last year, again a testament to the importance of a strategic alliance between a life insurer and a banking institution. Total premium income in 2014 was P4.9 billion.

Dooc noted that the trend in 2014 was the increased sale of traditional life insurance, a decrease in total volume of variable life, and continued decline in the sale of single-pay premiums.

The life insurance industry reported total premium income of P157 billion last year, roughly eight percent lower than the P170 billion in 2013.

Traditional policies last year amounted to P50 billion, up from P48.3 billion in 2013. Variable sale fell from P121 billion in 2013 to P107 billion last year.