BDO-Generali tie up to intensify life insurance business

MANILA, Philippines - BDO Unibank Inc. will intensify its life insurance business through Generali Philippines (GP), a joint venture with UK-based Generali Group, and wind down its non-life operations next year.

“After three years, our board is fully convinced that any further effort to operate our non-life business has become far less attractive due to an overly competitive market and to the significant increase in catastrophe reinsurance costs, a consequence of a series of natural events that recently occurred in Asia,” GP president and chief executive officer Renato Vergel De Dios said. 

By shifting its focus towards its core life business and harnessing the partnership with banking leader BDO, GP is poised to achieve its ambitious growth targets that will move the company further up in industry rankings.

“With our strong foundation and right fundamentals now in place, we are extremely excited at the prospect of taking Generali Philippines to the next level,” Vergel de Dios said.

GP has increased its premiums 38 percent in the nine-month period to September this year compared to the same period in 2011.

BDO attributed the growth in its banassurance business to the enhancement in GP’s distribution channel.

To date, GP employs a bancassurance sales force of over 500 who operate in more than 750 BDO branches nationwide.

New individual insurance sales, arising solely from regular premium products, went up 30 percent for the same period, while individual renewal premiums grew a hefty 59 percent.

Group life and health premiums, on the other hand, were up 25 percent.

Beyond the sheer growth in sales manpower is a nearly three-fold improvement in regular sales productivity since 2009.

This is the result of the company’s investment in sales training and supervision, improved field management systems, and concentration on its broad-based target markets.

“Our efforts in developing a professional bancassurance sales force (i.e. GP Financial Advisers) by building strong fundamentals have started to bear fruit,” the GP official said.

“This move has brought us closer to our ultimate objective of helping bank clients buy the right insurance products for their expressed needs.  In the process, we enable our financial advisers to achieve their own financial aspirations via a rewarding sales career in Generali,” Vergel de Dios said.