Pru Life UK president and chief executive officer Antonio de Rosas
MANILA – Sales of Pru Life UK’s traditional insurance products have been boosted by its bancassurance partnership with Robinsons Bank since 2018 thus, the renewal of the tie-up for another three years starting this month.
During the virtual signing ceremony on Thursday, Pru Life UK president and chief executive officer (CEO) Antonio de Rosas declined to give figures on how much the partnership has contributed to the sales of Pru Life UK but said: “it has been a profitable partnership in the past three years.”
“With Robinsons Bank, we have a niche selling more and more traditional products,” he said.
De Rosas said about 95 percent of the insurance company’s sales is accounted for by unit-linked products since 2002.
“We have been slow in selling our traditional products but because of the partnership with Robinsons Bank, we have been able to expand our suite of traditional products. And they have actually cornered almost our entire portfolio of traditional products to date,” he added.
Traditional insurance products are those that provide life coverages to account holders.
Unit-linked insurance products, on the other hand, are those that combine investments and insurance coverage.
Insurance companies pool funds for these products and invest them in equities and/or bonds locally and/or overseas.
The bancassurance partnership allows Robinsons Bank, JG Summit’s financial services arm, to exclusively offer Pru Life UK products through its 155 branches nationwide.
During the same briefing, Robinsons Bank president and chief executive officer Elfren Antonio Sarte said they initially thought of adding insurance products as among their offerings but because of the strong uptake among their clients, they came out with a product called IPONsurance, a savings deposit product that provides free insurance to account holders.
He said account holders of IPONsurance have insurance coverage of up to four times the amount of their deposit balance.
“So the consciousness of getting protection is there and we are now moving that and using our mobile banking app to further push this IPONsurance. So we are confident that we will reach more of our clients and maybe could attract more clients to the bank and Pru Life,” he added. (PNA)
