AXA Phl premiums up 23%

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine AXA Life Insurance Corp. (AXA Philippines) has reported gross premiums of P12.3 billion in 2012, 23 percent better than the P100 billion gained in 2011.

Likewise, new business or first year premiums increased by 26 percent to P2.8 billion from the P2.2 billion in 2011.

Net income, however, slipped to P915 million last year from the P967.4 million the year before.

Total assets under management (AUMs) amounted to over P40 billion.

“Paid up capital stood at P639 million at the end of 2012, or more than twice the minimum P250 million required by the Insurance Commission (IC),” Rien Hermans, AXA Philippines president and chief executive officer, said.

Of the total sales mix, 84 percent were accounted for by variable unit-linked (VUL) life insurance (or insurance spiced with an investment feature) another 12 percent from traditional life insurance or pure protection products, and the remaining four percent are group sales.

The VULs are predominantly single pay premiums, which gives the policyholder an option to investment a certain amount in investment instruments in the fixed income market, and equity or stock market.

In terms of distribution channels, top producer was the bancassurance channel accounting for 59 percent of total sales.

Bancassurance is the practice of selling insurance products through the branch network of a bank, in AXA’s case, through the 800 branch network of the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank).

The agency force, numbering 1,750, produced 24 percent of total sales, and the remaining 17 percent from various channels including direct marketing.

AXA Philippines, a joint venture bancassurance firm between Metrobank and AXA Group of France, has 144,200 individual clients and 235,300 certificate holders of group policies.

The life insurer manages 1,750 exclusive agents, and 470 financial executives servicing 600 Metrobank branches. It runs 80 direct sales staff, and another 370 operations and support staff.

In 2011, it ranked third best among the 32 life insurance companies in terms of total or gross premium income.

The AXA Group is one of the world’s largest financial protection and wealth management company, servicing more than 95 million customers in 61 countries.