IC: SUN LIFE NO. 1 INSURER IN 2020 NET INCOME

Despite a pandemic-induced recession, life and nonlife insurers managed to post strong sales and kept their bottom line in the black in 2020, with Sun Life of Canada (Philippines) Inc. keeping its top spot in terms of net income, the Insurance Commission (IC) said on Thursday.

In a statement, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said Sun Life’s 2020 profit amounted to P8.47 billion, citing the latest but unaudited quarterly reports on selected financial statistics for end2020 submitted by insurance firms to the regulator.

As such, Sun Life’s net income last year exceeded the P8.21 billion it posted in 2019, based on earlier IC data.

Among life insurers, the other top performers in net income last year were The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. Inc. (Philam Life), with P4.52 billion; Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Philippines) Inc. (Manulife), P4.05 billion; Pru Life Insurance Corp. of UK, P3.27 billion; Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp., P2.83 billion; The Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd., P2.7 billion; BPI-Philam Life Assurance Corp., P1.43 billion; Sun Life Grepa Financial Inc., P958.09 million; United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp., P674.22 million; and Manulife Chinabank Life Assurance Corp., P382.85 million.

Also, Sun Life had the largest premium income of P39.27 billion.

Philam Life had the highest end-2020 net worth amounting to P78.44 billion as well as the biggest total assets in the life sector, worth P291.22 billion.

In terms of sales measured by new business annual premium equivalent (NBAPE), Pru Life UK topped the industry with P7.95 billion last year.

“A life insurer’s NBAPE is computed by obtaining the sum of the value of first year premiums from products newly sold in a specific year [or the initialized annualized premium] and 10 percent of single premiums written. It is an international standard that [the IC] adopted to more accurately measure the life insurance industry’s sales performance,” Funa said.

As for nonlife players, Funa said Malayan Insurance Co. Inc. was in first place in terms of gross premiums written worth P14.21 billion in 2020, while Prudential Guarantee and Assurance Inc. ranked first in net premiums written with P4.55 billion.

Meanwhile, Pioneer Insurance and Surety Corp. topped nonlife companies both in end-2020 net worth (P17.42 billion) as well as total assets (P39.84 billion).