Allianz PNB bullish on insurance growth  

MANILA, Philippines — Allianz PNB Life is optimistic of the continued growth of the insurance market this year following its strong performance over the past two years.

In an interview with The STAR, Allianz PNB Life president and CEO Alexander Grenz said one of the positive outcome of the pandemic is that people have realized the importance of seeking health protection.

“It’s now very much focused on protection and health,” Grenz said, referring to Filipinos’ appreciation of insurance in general. He said this was an offshoot of two years into the pandemic when people realized the importance of health insurance.

In 2021, Allianz PNB Life recorded P30 billion in gross written premiums, almost doubled from the previous year.

“This strong performance was the highest since the inception of our joint venture with PNB in 2016,” Grenz said.

He said he expects continued growth this year, given the increased awareness for the importance of protection and higher propensity among consumers to invest in insurance.

The Insurance Commission reported that life insurers posted record-high total premiums of P374.7 billion in 2021, up 21.6 percent from 2020.

Benefits disbursed to clients jumped 41.9 percent to P139.8 billion, the IC also said.

Against this backdrop, Allianz PNB Life was once again the fastest growing life insurer in the country, registering a remarkable 47 percent year-on-year increase in annualized net premiums and double-digit increase in new customers.

The company also continued to develop its digital system to make it simple and easy for its policyholders to access its products and services, Grenz said.

These initiatives include improving e-payments and e-policy issuance standards to better facilitate self-help solutions.

“We’ve seen better engagement with customers and higher responsiveness of customers,” he said.

Allianz PNB Life has been listed by the Insurance Commission as the fourth best performing insurance company in the Philippines, based on annualized new premium (ANP) and gross written premium (GWP) for 2021.

The joint venture’s 2021 ANP ranking is four places higher than the previous year, while the company’s GWP ranking rose three slots as compared to that in 2020.