BPI Philam out to outperform record 2015 premium haul

MANILA, Philippines - With a 35-percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the past five years, BPI-Philam Life Assurance Corp. (BPI-Philam) has remained ambitious in duplicating, if not surpassing its 2015 premium income uptake.

In a press briefing yesterday, Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) officer-in-charge and BPI Philam chief executive officer Ariel G. Cantos said 2015 was in fact its fastest growth rate of 44 percent.

“In fact, our first quarter sales in 2016 is better than the same period last year,” Cantos said.

BPI-Philam is a bancassurance joint venture company between the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Philam Life. Bancassurance is the practice of selling life insurance policies through the branch network of a bank.

Last year, the joint venture company reported total assets of P76.43 billion, net worth of P8.42 billion, total revenues of P22.13 billion, and net income of P1.19 billion.

In a span of just five years, it rose to fourth best performer with gross premiums of P20.7 billion, among the 30 life insurance companies and third only to Philam Life, which reported gross premiums of P21.1 billion.

In fact, the top five insurers with a combined premium income of over P160 billion already account for majority of the industry’s premium income of P188 billion in 2015.

As of last count, BPI Philam fielded 700 bancassurance sales executives (BSE) in the 800 consolidated branch network of BPI, including BPI Family Savings Bank. BSE are employees of Philam Life stationed in the branches, as differentiated from the sales agency force numbering 7,000.

BPI Philam markets 10 life insurance products, including variable unit linked (VUL) and health insurance.

In the same briefing, Cantos reported that Philam Life’s net income hit P7.4 billion last year.

Total assets stood at P236.4-billion and net worth of P88.7 billion. Total revenue reached P33.4 billion, including gross premiums of P21.1 billion and investment income of P12.2 billion.

Cantos said the insurer paid over P12.7 billion in benefits and claims including P1.7 billion in education benefits. Through the years, the insurer released over P118 billion in total benefits (1950-2014) and over P9 billion in education benefits (2004-2014) to policyholders nationwide.

Philam Life has 700,000 individual policyholder and two million group insurance members.