AIA Group bullish on Philippine operations

MANILA, Philippines - The AIA Group sees the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) among its top three subsidiaries in the next few years.

In a press briefing in Manila, AIA Group chief executive officer and president Mark Edward Tucker said Philam Life would become one of the top three players for the group in the coming years.

“The sooner the better,” Tucker said.

In the AIA circle, the top subsidiaries are China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

The Philippines is lumped with the next tier subsidiaries, which include Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

In the local market, Philam Life reported the best net earnings of more than P5 billion in 2014.

The Philam Life Group reported over P30 billion in terms of combined premium income.

Tucker said AIA is committed to support the Philippines’ growth momentum by continuously providing innovative products and quality services.

In the near term, Philam Life outlined its growth targets, which include offering a complete suite of financial solutions ranging from retirement, health, protection, savings, investments, and education.

Recently, it pioneered its wellness programs through Vitality, health products such as Health Invest Plus, and innovative programs that support health care solutions called the Accelerator program.

Philam Life chief investment officer Arleen May S. Guevara said the country’s average age of 23 years makes it among the youngest in the region, often referred to as the demographic sweet spot.

Philam Life wants to be part of the lives of individuals who are just joining the country’s work force, Guevara said.

“We should ensure their wellness while they are young, while they are entering the work force, while building their families, start their children’s education, until their retirement. We want to be relevant, throughout the generations,” she said.

Another short to medium term target, is to provide customers with an easier way of doing business through multiple payment facilities, e-billing, and other innovations.

That would mean investing in new technology platforms.

The insurer has already tapped iPos (Interactive Point of Sale), an iPad-based application that enables advisors to sell in a paperless environment. Customers can take advantage of e-application, e-submission using their e-signature. Transactions can be very fast at real time submission.

It also tapped iMO or interactive mobile office, which gives Philam Life advisors and leaders the office functionality in their iPads, including activity management system, e-recruitment, business planner, training videos, and leads and campaigns management.

In line with providing excellent customer servicing, Philam Life will complete the transformation of its offices with 30 newly-renovated facilities by 2016.

Tucker said the AIA and Philam Life are looking at financial technologies (fintech), digital, genetics genomics and other leading edge technologies.

“As a group, we invest significantly including, technology labs in Singapore and Hongkong,” he added.

Through its joint venture company BPLAC, the insurance group teamed up with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) not only for bancassurance.

Tucker said part of the work in the joint venture is data mining which include looking at propensity, studying savings and investment habits, and other information that would help the bank and insurer’s clients, as well as the insurance business.

BPLAC is a major player in the Philippine life insurance industry, ranking fifth in terms of total premium income and eight in terms of net income in 2014.