Insular Life and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC) recently entered into a partnership to educate and offer risk-mitigating solutions for women in the Philippines. At the contract signing (in photo) were Marieme Esther Dassanou, senior operations officer, Gender Secretariat; Yuan Xu, country manager, IFC Philippines (fifth and sixth from left); Insular Life CEO Nina Aguas (seventh from left); and Insular Life President Mona Lisa de la Cruz (eighth from left), as well as other officers from IFC and Insular Life.
Insular Life, the first and largest Filipino life-insurance company, and the World Bank’s IFC have entered into a partnership to educate and offer risk-mitigating solutions for women in the Philippines.
A 2015 report released by the IFC, entitled “She for Shield: Insure Women to Better Protect All,” showed that women represent an untapped $1.7-trillion opportunity, mostly in emerging markets.
The IFC has since been exploring partnerships with insurance companies in different countries interested in and committed to profitably increasing the uptake of insurance by providing customized risk-mitigating solutions for women.
Insular Life has taken on this call from the IFC to be the first insurance company in Asia to partner with it on this program to insure women.
“We are very happy and privileged to join IFC in this cause to help women become self-reliant and financially independent,” Insular Life CEO Nina Aguas said.
She added: “As an inherently Filipino institution serving our countrymen for 107 years now, Insular Life has always looked out for ways to help improve the lives of Filipinos. So, if there is any insurance company in the Philippines that will embrace this program, it is us.”
Aguas said the “economic or profitability component in the equation is not as crucial to us, as the opportunity to expand our reach to the uninsured, unserved women out there, using technology to enable us to find innovative ways to create meaningful and long-term relationships with them”.
Yuan Xu, IFC country manager for the Philippines, said the partnership with Insular Life should lead to insurance solutions that will address women’s financial protection and risk-mitigation needs at different life stages.
“Women are important to the continuous economic growth of the Philippines. At IFC, we are committed to finding innovative ways to expand women’s access to assets and ways to secure them,” Xu added.
Dubbed “Empowering the Filipino Sheroes,” the Insular Life-IFC program aims to reach out to all women in the Philippines—career women, professionals, entrepreneurs, and most especially those looking for financial solutions to expand their businesses or who seek life protection, but currently have no access to financial instruments and life insurance.
The program will involve developing insurance products specifically designed for women, through specific coverage, bundling of insurance products, awareness campaigns, and developing add-on services.