MANILA, Philippines - Sun Life (Philippines) Inc. reported an 80-percent expansion in total premiums in the first nine months of 2012 as first-year premiums grew 60 percent, the company’s top official said.
“As of October this year, we are well beyond our full year 2011 premiums,” Riza Mantaring, Sun Life Philippines president and chief executive officer, said in a press briefing yesterday.
Last year, the local unit of the Canadian insurance giant registered total premiums of P13.9 billion. In 2010 total premiums reached P10.6 billion.
Of the total premiums so far, over 80 percent are variables or investment-linked insurance products while the balance are traditional protection insurance products.
Mantaring said she believes prospects for the life insurance industry remains very positive for the whole of 2012 and 2013.
She said that the country’s life insurance industry grew roughly 40 percent in the first six months of the year, as the sector continues to experience strong growth in terms of sales.
In fact, last year marked a banner year for Sun Life as it catapulted into the top spot among life insurers in terms of total premiums and first-year variable sales.
Mantaring said another reason for optimism is the strong production of Sunlife Grepa, the bancassurance joint venture with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
“It has grown well beyond our expectations,” she said.
Bancassurance is already sharing significant number in this year’s first-year premiums.
The Philippine operations of Sun Life Financial was also cited in the Canadian insurer’s latest financial report.
Sun Life Financial president and chief executive officer Dean Connor said that their Asian business was a major contributor to global insurance sales.
“In our Asian business, insurance sales in the Philippines were up 46 percent, benefiting from both agency expansion, as well as the successful integration of the Grepa Life acquisition and bancassurance joint venture,” Connor said in his report last Nov. 8.
Sun Life Philippines now has over a million policies-in-force, half of which are traditional products, while less than a quarter are produced by its bancassurance joint venture.