PhilAxa Life premiums hit P1-B in first 7 months

The Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp. (PhilAxa Life) reported a gross premium income of P1.0 billion as of end July this year. First-year premiums in the same period reached P286.7 million, or 18 percent better than the P243.2 million realized in the same period last year.

PhilAxa Life is a joint venture between the Metrobank Group and Axa of France, one of the largest life insurance and financial institutions in the world.

It is looking to register a total premium income of P3.3 billion by end 2003 or an improvement of 18 percent from the P2.8-billion recorded last year.

PhilAxa Life president and chief executive officer Victor P. Quisumbing stressed that they remained optimistic that the life insurer would meet full year premium income targets despite recording roughly a third of the targeted full year premium income in the first seven months.

"Historical trends indicate that majority of the sales are realized in the second semester. We know for a fact that there are already huge sales coming in on the third quarter," Quisumbing said. "We are optimistic that this figure will triple towards the last quarter of the year now that we have successfully introduced our innovative valuable life products called Honey and HoneyPot."

Total premium income is generally composed of first year premiums, renewal premiums and lately single premiums.

The Metrobank affiliate recorded P1.8 billion in single premium income last year and it is looking to grow by another P2 billion this year.

One of the key components responsible for the life insurers growth was the application of bancassurance in its distribution network. Bancassurance is an alliance between a bank and an insurer wherein the latter taps the bank’s branch network and client base.

Last year, 60 percent of PhilAxa Life’s first year premiums came from as a direct result of bancassurance. Quisumbing said that they expect bancassurance to account for almost 70 percent of first year premiums. – TPT