Sun Life sees Philippines contributing more to global business

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine market’s contribution to Sun Life Financial’s global business may expand further in the next five years, a top official said.

In a roundtable discussion with reporters, Sun Life Financial Asia president Claude Accum said the Philippines has been a “huge” contributor to the growth of Sun Life’s business worldwide, and is expected to continue being a key player in the medium term.

Accum said the Philippines accounted for around seven percent of Sun Life Financial’s total income. This is projected to become even more significant in the next five years, he said.

“We see the Philippines as an important part of our growth story in Asia. The Philippines is actually contributing seven percent of Sun Life’s total income and we expect that to get bigger. It’s likely gonna be, in five or more years, about nine or 10 percent of the total company contribution,” Accum said.

According to the official, the Philippine insurance market still presents many opportunities for growth as it is still underpenetrated.

Accum said Sun Life Philippines is also on track to meet its target of serving five million clients by 2020. Currently, he said the company is catering to about 3.5 million clients nationwide.

To achieve this target, Accum said the company is adopting a three-pronged approach – by agency, bancassurance and digital platforms.

He said the company plans to raise further the number of its financial advisors, which is currently comprised of 11,000 agents.

Accum said Sun Life Philippines is also launching digital partnerships with online platforms, Lazada and Takatack, to sell affordable insurance products. This mode, he said, is projected to attract about one million of the insurer’s new client base in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Accum said Sun Life Philippines remains very interested in participating in the government’s massive infrastructure development program.

He said the company is also looking to form a trust company in the Philippines.

“We’re looking at launching a number of other business that would take us to the trust business,” he said.

The Philippines is one of the key markets in Asia.

Dean Connor, Sun Life Financial president and chief executive officer, said Asia has been one of the pillars of the company’s growth in recent years.

“Asia, back in 2012 was only seven percent of the company. Today, it’s 17 percent of Sun Life Global. Asia has tripled its earnings in the past five years and should double again in the next five years,” Connor said.

Going forward, he said the target is for Asia to contribute to at least 25 percent of the company’s business.

“That’s absolutely doable. We expect Sun Life Asia to grow at 15 to 20 percent per year. And something that grows at 15 percent a year doubles after five years. And if we grow at 20 percent a year we’ll double even faster than five years,” Connor said.

“Today, it’s running around  C$450 million in terms of net income and we expect that to double over the next five years,” he said.