ALLIANZ PNB Life Insurance, Inc. is expecting to book low double-digit growth in 2019 in line with the market as macroeconomic environment improves this year amid election spending.
In an anniversary dinner in Manila on Wednesday, Allianz PNB Life Chief Executive Officer Olaf Kliesow said the joint venture between German insurer Allianz SE and Lucio C. Tan-owned Philippine National Bank (PNB) is expecting another “low double-digit” growth this year.
“We’ll be looking again at a year where we see a low double-digit growth, and we would expect to at least be as good as the market,” Mr. Kliesow told reporters on Thursday.
“We see another strong year for the Philippine insurance coming up. Two years ago, we had 11% growth. Last year, probably something around 15% — we don’t know the figures yet.”
In 2017, total premiums written by the insurance industry reached P259.646 billion, up 12% from the P231.883 billion booked in 2016, mainly driven by life insurance firms.
For this year, Mr. Kliesow is expecting to see “sustainable” growth in the country as the macroeconomic environment remains to be “sound.”
“That’s why I believe the macroeconomic outlook would be better, inflation is coming down, and that’s what we expect throughout 2019.”
Headline inflation settled at 5.2% last year, the fastest since 2008’s 8.2% and exceeding the central bank’s 2-4% target band, amid higher oil prices and issues on rice supply.
For this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects inflation to return below 4% as early as March, well within its target range.
“It’s an election year, where economic forecast is also slightly higher than in other years,” added Mr. Kliesow, who is also president of the Philippine Life Insurance Association, Inc.
Another driver for Allianz PNB’s growth for this year is the large need for protection in the country, as the insurance penetration rate in the Philippines is still at 1.7% of the population as of end-September 2018.
“It’s the highest penetration the Philippines has ever seen as of the third quarter… But there is still a large need for protection and insurance in the Philippines and that’s the driver of the growth,” Mr. Kliesow said.
Meanwhile, Allianz PNB said it has started offering some “minor” microinsurance products through its digital partnerships to help narrow the protection gap.
“There is a lot of room because the uninsured and the unbanked community in the Philippines is large and microinsurance is something that we are also offering,” Mr. Kliesow said.
In a previous interview last year, Allianz PNB Chief Finance Officer Efren C. Caringal said the insurer plans to venture into the microinsurance business to help narrow the number of Filipinos who still do not have an insurance.
The German insurer completed the 51% acquisition of PNB Life Insurance, Inc., the life insurance arm of PNB, in June 2016.
According to latest Insurance Commission data, Allianz PNB was the twelfth-largest life insurer in terms of premium income with P5.3 billion as of end-2017. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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