Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp. (AXA Philippines) anticipates P20 billion in total premium income by year-end on the basis of the strong expansion of its bancassurance business.
AXA Philippines President and CEO Rien Hermans said the current year is shaping up as a banner year for the insurer.
AXA said nine-month premium income rose 36 percent to P17.3 billion, higher than the P12.7 billion recorded in the same period last year.
“We definitely expect to end the year exceeding the P20 billion in total premium income. This year will definitely be a record-breaking one for AXA Philippines,” he said, quickly adding they will continue to sustain the upward trend they started five years ago.
AXA, one of the largest and fastest growing life insurance companies in the country, has an 11.9-percent share of the local market.
According to the Insurance Commission, total premium for the life- insurance industry reached P145.5 billion end-September.
Bancassurance, or the selling of insurance through banks, continues to account for the bulk or 67 percent of total sales.
Its growth was traced in part to the expansion of the branch network of the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and its thrift unit, the Philippine Savings Bank.
AXA is a joint venture company of Metrobank and the AXA Group, the world’s largest insurance company.
AXA Philippines is one of the pioneers of the variable insurance business in the Philippines.
The variable universal life insurance offers both risk cover and an investment feature for its holders and contributed 90 percent of AXA Philippines’s total premium income.
AXA’s sales or annualized premium equivalent reached P3.6 billion, higher than last year’s by 26 percent.
Funds under management increased to P73.7 billion, a 17-percent growth year-on-year.
Profit went up by 31 percent to P1.1 billion as of the first nine months.
“Asset management recorded high positive net inflows for the nine months. Our economic solvency position remained resilient and strong,” Hermans said.
AXA Philippines aims to be an even stronger player in the local insurance market with its planned acquisition of the insurer Charter Ping An, a top five non-life insurer.
AXA Philippines has 2,700 financial advisers in 32 branches and 610 financial executives in over 750 Metrobank and PSBank branches nationwide.