Equitable PCIBank, Philamlife form joint venture for bancassurance

Major commercial bank Equitable PCI Bank will start marketing insurance products through its branch network, otherwise known as bancassurance, as it makes operational its strategic alliance with Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company (Philamlife).

The venture kicked off with Philamlife acquiring this week 95 percent of the bank’s insurance company subsidiary, Equitable PCI Life. Philamlife is the local unit of the American International Group (AIG), the US financial and insurance giant.

"We are confident this partnership will prove most advantageous to our customers who will be offered a broad array of insurance product offerings, which should reinforce the bank’s position as a quality service provider," Antonio L. Go, Equitable PCI chairman said.

Renamed Philam Equitable Life Assurance Co. Inc. (PELAC), the new company will be able to offer a portfolio of insurance products and services to the bank’s nearly two million customers. Equitable PCI Bank will retain a five-percent stake to legally qualify it to market the venture’s products.

PELAC will be led by Carl Gustini as chief executive officer and president, a veteran of 20 years at AIG. The undisputed leader in the local life insurance market, Philamlife will bring fresh capital and world-class assurance expertise to the alliance, ensuring the new company becomes a major force in the industry.

Equitable PCI Bank president and chief executive officer Rene J. Buenaventura is optimistic of the venture’s prospects, saying "it is our vision to become the dominant player in the field, providing an unparalleled level of bancassurance service."

"We have always sought to respond to customers’ needs with products and service offerings that represent the leading edge of innovation in the financial services industry. This partnership will allow us to explore and possibly lead in this exciting new field," Buenaventura added.

Beginning December, PELAC will deploy trained and professional financial sales executives in selected Equitable PCI Bank branches to work with branch personnel to give customers complete financial planning service.

The deployment will cover 30 Metro-Manila branches initially but will extend across the whole country eventually. As generating sales leads will be critical to success, the bank will be intensively training branch personnel ahead of the sales executive rollout.

Bank officials said that the alliance ensured the bank would keep abreast with emerging trends in the marketplace evolving customer habits, increasingly sophisticated distribution channels or technological and regulatory changes.

Cross-selling for greater efficiency is one such international trend brought about by regulatory easing. Under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regulations, commercial banks can now market products such as life insurance policies.

Now celebrating its 53rd anniversary, Equitable PCI Bank is presently the country’s third largest commercial bank, enjoying leadership in corporate and commercial banking, credit and payment cards, trust, leasing, and investment banking. It has over 400 branches and more than 400 FASTeller ATMs nationwide, with access to 4,000 BancNet, MegaLink, and ExpressNet ATMs.