AXA expects better than industry premium growth

AXA Philippines is optimistic its life insurance business would continue to outpace the performance of the entire insurance industry in the country.

In an interview, AXA Philippines president and chief executive officer Rahul Hora said AXA may surpass the entire insurance industry’s growth performance for the whole of 2018 given the robust figures in the first quarter.

“The first quarter was good for us. Industry grew by 40 percent in terms of premium income. That’s on the life business side. Against industry growth of 40 percent, we grew by 67 percent in the same period,” Hora said, adding that, “we were twice as fast as the industry in 2017 and we would expect that in 2018. We expect to grow much faster than the industry.”

According to Hora, AXA Philippines has an edge against other players in the industry as it offers a wide range of products — from life insurance, health insurance and general insurance products.

“If you look at AXA, we are the only significant company today in the industry which has both life insurance and general insurance products,” Hora said.

He said this makes it convenient for Filipino customers to do business with the company.

Hora attributed AXA’s strong performance to the training it provides to its agents and financial analysts, which enables them to properly explain to clients the importance of the company’s products and solutions.

In line with this, AXA Philippines recently inaugurated its new state-of-the-art training facility in Makati City, known as the AXA Academy.

“This training facility has been thoughtfully developed and designed to provide the most conducive environment for learning and growth. This is in turn will hep us nurture and train insurance professionals who are better equipped to provide outstanding service to our clients,” Hora said.

At nearly 1,000 square meters, the AXA Academy can accommodate up to eight simultaneous training sessions with a maximum capacity of 300 participants.

In the first quarter of the year, the life insurance sector’s premium income jumped by more than 40 percent to P61.79 billion from the P44.08 billion recorded in the same period in 2017.

The insurance industry’s premium income as of end-March reached P76.64 billion, 34.38 percent higher than the P57.04 billion recorded in the same period last year.