EASTWEST Ageas Insurance expects its revenue to grow faster this year after it expanded by 30% in the first quarter, driven by new products to be sold in the second half, its top official said.
“The growth is actually going quite fast,” Sjoerd Smeets, president and chief executive officer at EastWest Ageas, told a news briefing on Thursday. “The real growth is now kicking in.”
The life insurance company, which started in 2015 is a joint venture of East West Banking Corp. and Ageas Insurance International.
Mr. Smeets said sales growth last quarter was driven by the growth in policyholders and more product launches.
He said the company expects information technology investments made by the company in 2023 to boost operations and the recruitment of more agents.
“Last year was loss-making but this year, I can say in general, the company is very positive,” he said, adding that they plan to add life insurance products by August.
EastWest Ageas serves at least 13 countries in Europe and Asia, with about 47 million customers, 250,000 of which are from the Philippines.
It expects to its policyholders in the Philippines to increase because more Filipinos want to get insured, the company said, citing its own survey.
The insurance industry is not affected too much by economic headwinds such as high inflation and interest rates, Rowena Jongco-Empalmado, EastWest Ageas chief operating officer, told the same briefing.
“We’re able to continue to provide the same premium whether or not inflation is high or not,” she said.
In May, the Philippine central bank’s Monetary Board kept its benchmark rate steady at 6.5%, the highest in 17 years, for a fifth straight meeting.
It raised borrowing costs by 450 basis points from May 2022 to October 2023 to curb inflation, which quickened to 3.8% in April from 3.7% in March, bringing the year-to-date rate to 3.3%. — Ashley Erika O. Jose
