AXA LIFE Insurance Corp.’s (AXA Philippines) bancassurance partnerships with Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) and its thrift banking arm Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) have borne fruit, as more than half of the insurer’s business operations now come from the lenders.

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As of end-2016, AXA Philippines had more than 3,000 exclusive agents and 693 financial executives in a total of 938 Metrobank and PSBank branches nationwide. — AFP

The chief of AXA Philippines — which is 25%-owned by GT Capital Holdings, Inc. and 28% by First Metro Investment Corp., both controlled by tycoon George S.K. Ty of the Metrobank Group — said its collaboration with Metrobank and PSBank “is doing extremely well,” as it contributes 60% of the life insurer’s total business operations.

“We’re doing extremely well and we’re very proud of our joint venture partnership with Metrobank and PSBank,” AXA Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Rahul Hora said in a recent press conference.

“When a customer walks in a Metrobank or PSBank branch, he can get a full range of financial products from those institutions, from banking, to loan, to investment, to life insurance, to general insurance products, and that’s what really makes us closer to convenience that we want for our customers,” Mr. Hora said.

As of end-2016, AXA Philippines had more than 3,000 exclusive agents and 693 financial executives in a total of 938 Metrobank and PSBank branches nationwide.

Asked how the joint venture has contributed to the life insurer’s performance, Mr. Hora said, “For us internally, 60% of our business actually comes from Metrobank, so for us it’s a very, very important partnership.”

Metrobank is the country’s second largest bank in asset terms with P1.423 trillion at end-June 2016.

“And more importantly, if you look at the Metrobank branches, almost 100% of the branches are active, which means they do sell life insurance and general insurance products coming from AXA,” Mr. Hora said. “And I think that’s a big measure because the Metrobank staff, the Metrobank employees, are embracing the fact that they want to be a financial institution where the customer began all their financial products on one institution.”

Latest data from the IC showed AXA Philippines ranked second in premium terms in 2016 with P21.6 billion.

AXA Philippines has been operating here since 1999 and pioneered bancassurance operations — which is the distribution of insurance products through banks’ branch networks — in the country.

Shares in Metrobank gained P1.40 or 1.51% to close at P94.15 apiece on Monday, while PSBank shares went down by P1.90 or 2.11% to P88.10 each. — J.M.D. Soliman

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