HK insurer tries to break into PH market

The Philippines’ growing insurance industry remains wide open, with more than enough room for new players to compete for market share with major stakeholders that have been in the country for decades.

Hong Kong’s FWD Group this week said it was confident that it could break into and become a significant player in the country’s life insurance sector.

The company, which acquired ING’s insurance business in Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand in 2013, announced plans to set up shop in the Philippines before the end of the year.

“Asia, as a whole in life insurance, has a very low penetration rate,” FWD chair Ronald Arculli said at a press conference in Makati Tuesday.

FWD wants to be one of the top five life insurance companies in the Philippines in terms of premiums in the next five years—an ambitious goal going up against industry leaders, Canada’s Sun Life Financial, and Philam Life.

Insurance Commission (IC) head Emmanuel Dooc said the government would ensure a level playing field for FWD and all other foreign insurance providers that may want to set up shop in the Philippines.

He also expressed confidence that FWD, a group with “unbounded resources,” would be able to hold its own against more entrenched players.

The Philippines is the FWD group’s first foray outside its original markets of Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand. The company, which is planning an initial investment of P1.3 billion, is the first foreign life insurance firm to announce plans to set up shop in the Philippines since 2004.

“The Philippines has always intrigued me. It has 100 million people, but penetration is still very low. It should be much, much higher than what it is now,” FWD group CEO Huynh Thanh Phong said.