Generali’s premium income up 25% to P1.76B in first 9 months

Generali Pilipinas Life Assurance Co. boosted its premium income in the nine months ending September this year, growing by 25 percent to P1.76 billion. 

Life  insurance premiums expanded to P1.45 billion or a 26 percent growth from P1.16 billion in the same period last year. 

Property and casualty products, the company’s non-life component, also registered growth with a 21 percent increase  from P257 million to P312 million. 

Generali Pilipinas is a composite license holder, meaning it is authorized to sell both life and non-life insurance policies. 

Meanwhile, its bancassurance channel reflected an impressive performance, with combined premiums growing just five percent short of hitting the P1-billion mark to P998 million this year. 

“We are just starting to realize the results of our bancassurance practice with Banco de Oro,” said Augustus J.V. Ferreria, senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Generali Pilipinas. 

Bancassurance allows the insurer to sell its products through the branch network as well as client base of a commercial bank. It is known as cross-selling in the banking community wherein the commercial bank must own at least five percent equity in the insurer before bancassurance can be practiced. 

In the case of Generali Pilipinas, 40 percent of its equity is owned by Banco de Oro Unibank Inc.

Ferreria  said their target for the whole of 2007 is a total combined premium income of P2.7 billion, with the bulk or over P2 billion accounted for by life products. 

At the end of 2006, total premium income stood at P2 billion with P1.4 billion accounted for by the life sector. The company was ranked eighth among the 34 industry players during the period. 

Generali Pilipinas has yet to sell variable or unit linked (VUL) life products that are investment-laced. The investment component are similar to mutual funds including investments placed in the equity or stock market, fixed income or bond market, and the balanced fund or a combination of the equity and fixed income markets. 

“We are still reviewing our options to introduce VUL products as it requires a different set of processes,” Ferreria said. “It requires a different infrastructure, extensive disclosure processes, and a level of investment maturity of the public.” 

Generali Pilipinas is  jointly controlled by Generali Asia and Banco de Oro Unibank Inc.  Generali Asia is a regional alliance between Assicurazioni Generali of Italy and Jerneh Asia Berhad of Malaysia.