Philippine American Life and General Insurance still number 1 despite decline in premium sales

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) has retained its leadership in the country’s life insurance industry with total premiums of P13.639 billion last year.

While the figure is 20 percent lower than the previous year’s P16.828 billion, it was good enough to keep the company at the top spot with a 26.9-percent market share.

The top 11 insurers, which account for nearly 90 percent of total premiums, suffered an average premium drop of 34.1 percent in premium sales.

The top 11 insurers reported P46.05 billion in total premiums or a drop of 34 percent from the P69.928 billion in 2007.

Most industry players said the second semester reflected the negative impact of the global credit crisis. Traditionally, second semester sales outperform the first six months of the year.

Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. managed to reclaim the second best performing life insurer will total premium income amounting to P8.523 billion. In 2007, it slipped to third place with premiums amounting to P13.129 billion.

Insular Life Assurance Co. (Insular Life) likewise regained its place in third with premiums reaching P5.9 billion in 2008 from the P7.695 billion in 2007.

Dropping from second best performer in 2007, to fourth place last year was AXA Life Insurance Philippines with premiums worth P5.35 billion.

Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Manulife) reported premiums worth P3.242 billion in 2008 remaining within the top five top performers in the industry.

Ayala Life Assurance Inc. reported premiums of P1.888 billion, enough to push the company to sixth best performer in 2008.

The United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife) reported premiums reaching P1.856 billion while the Great Pacific Life Assurance Corp. (Grepalife) accounted for P1.815 billion. Cocolife moved up to seventh spot and Grepalife to eight.

The Philam Equitable Life Assurance Co. (Pelac) reported premiums reaching P1.66 billion, followed by Generali Pilipinas Life Assurance Co. accounting for P1.36 billion.

Pelac is a joint venture of Philamlife and then Equitable PCI Bank with a contract expiring this year. Generali Pilipinas is a joint venture between Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. and Generali Asia Spa. The joint venture agreement of Pelac terminates this year.

Pru Life Insurance Corp. of UK reported premiums amounting to P735 million last year.