MANILA, Philippines — Life insurance giant AIA Philam Life has officially changed its brand name to AIA Philippines in a move to integrate its operations with Hong Kong-based AIA Group.
In an interview with reporters, AIA Philippines CEO John Kelvin Ang said the rebrand would allow them to take advantage of the opportunities the pandemic brings to the insurance sector.
Ang said management has taken a long and hard look at the risks and benefits of the move, and decided to push through with it to align the firm with its Asian parent entity.
“We will be rebranding ourselves, and now we will be known as AIA Philippines. For us this is a big step forward and we are extremely excited,” Ang said.
AIA Philippines chief marketing officer Leonardo Tan said the firm would expand its offering as part of the rebranding, as it will now deliver as well new value propositions from the AIA Group. He added the insurance giant will include in its packages some of the bestselling products from the AIA Group across its 18 markets.
Tan said AIA Philippines will open up multiple types of funds, including text stocks, bank stocks, green bonds, sustainable bonds and ESG investments, in the course of its brand change.
“We want to expand our reach and expand our customer channel, that’s why we will offer global access to these different types of funds,” Tan said.
The Philippines still has one of the lowest insurance penetration in Asia as Filipinos prefer to save their income in banks over investing it in premiums. Last year, insurance penetration went up to 1.71 percent from 1.64 percent in 2019 as the pandemic changed the mindset of some Filipinos.