Generali premium income hits P601-M

Generali Pilipinas registered a combined total premium income of P601 million in 2002 after only two years in the Philippine insurance market.

As a result of the company’s strong performance last year, the Italy-based insurer expects bigger gross premiums in the next few years particularly in the life insurance sector.

Of the total premium income, P505 million came from its non-life insurance operations, which was up by a strong 64 percent from just P309 million in 2001.

The firm’s life insurance sector, on the other hand, earned P96 million last year, or a 77- percent expansion from P54 million in 2001.

Based on a report from the Insurance Commission (IC), Generali Pilipinas’ non-life operations ranked 36th overall from a list of over a hundred insurance firms during its first year of operations alone.

The firm’s non-life insurance arm is called Generali Pilipinas Insurance Co. Inc. (GPIC) while the life side is called Generali Pilipinas Life Assurance Co. Inc. (GPLAC).

Generali Pilipinas is partly owned by Banco de Oro Universal Bank, a subsidiary of Henry Sy’s SM Group.

Industry sources said Generali Pilipinas’ status in the local insurance industry may change dramatically in the next few years because of a scheme popularly known in the insurance community as bancassurance.

Under the cross selling circular of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), a bank’s subsidiary or affiliate can sell its products within a bank’s premises especially its branch network.

Presently, Banco de Oro has 126 branches nationwide and still growing. "We will have a total of 180 by the end of the year," Banco de Oro Vice President Edith Dee-Dychiao said.

Banco de Oro recently acquired 1st e-Bank, a medium-sized commercial bank formerly owned by Metro Pacific Corp. 1st e-Bank had 56 branches.

Last year, insurers practicing bancassurance reported considerable gains of between 20 and 40 percent due mainly to bancassurnace practice.

Generali Pilipinas President and Chief executive Officer Alfonso P. Garcia Jr. said that impact of bancassurance on his firm’s performance would be felt at the earliest in the second half of the year or next year.

Through bancassurance, licensed insurance agents or representatives are allowed to sell insurance products within a bank’s premises.

"Ideally, we would like to have one representative or financial advisors (FAs), as they are called, per branch," Garcia said. By the middle of 2003, the projected ratio for one FA to a branch is 1:10 or one FA to every 10 branch.

Other than bancassurance, Generali Pilipinas launched several US dollar-denominated life insurance product for both protection and investment purposes.

Earlier, Generali launched a one-time or single-pay insurance policy.