MANILA, Philippines — Bancassurance firm Allianz PNB Life Insurance Inc. likely grew by a double-digit rate in 2018 and expects to continue to perform strongly this year, its top official said.
According to Olaf Kliesow, president and chief executive officer of Allianz PNB Life, the company’s annualized premium income stood at an “all-time historic high” in 2018.
“Our annualized premium income for 2018 stood at a historic high and has quadrupled compared to when we started in 2016,” Kliesow said in his speech during the 3rd anniversary celebration of Allianz PNB Life.
In an interview with reporters, Kliesow said the company’s 2018 premium income may have grown by double-digits compared to the previous year.
“Two years ago, we grew by 11 percent. Last year, probably, something around 15 percent. We don’t know the figures yet,” Kliesow said.
The company’s market share, for its part, may have also doubled to 3.5 percent as of end-2018, from the 1.6 percent registered in 2016, Kliesow said.
Going forward, Kliesow said the company expects to sustain the double-digit growth this year, especially since macroeconomic fundamentals are getting better.
“I would expect, for 2019 – where the macroeconomic environment has been improving so far and it’s an election year where economic forecast is also slightly higher than in other years – we’ll be looking again at a year with a low double digit growth and we would expect to at least be as good as the market,” he said.
Furthermore, Kliesow said there is still opportunity for growth in the Philippines, with the insurance penetration rate at only 1.7 percent.
“There is still a large need for protection and insurance in the Philippines and that’s the driver of the growth,” he said.
“And the other big driver is the demographics. You have a young population that is growing, you have the middle class,” he said.
According to data from the Insurance Commission, Allianz PNB Life’s premium income grew by 95.6 percent to P5.3 billion in 2017 from P2.71 billion in 2016, placing the company as the fastest growth insurer in the country.
Meanwhile, the local insurance industry reported a total premium income of P218.91 billion as of end-September 2018, 18 percent higher than the P185.51 billion posted in the same period in the previous year.
The life insurance industry, for its part, recorded positive growth in the first nine months of the year as total premiums rose by 20.4 percent to P174.15 billion from P144.63 billion in the same period last year.
Total net premiums written by the non-life insurance sector also increased by 7.34 percent to P36.83 billion from last year’s level of P34.31 billion.
Contributions and premiums collected by mutual benefit associations also grew by 21.2 percent to reach P7.93 billion.