INSURANCE provider AXA Philippines is expanding its operations in the Visayas by opening two new branch offices in Cebu.
The firm unveiled yesterday its two additional branches located in the Cebu Business Park and Crown Regency Tower 3. With this addition, the firm now has three offices, including its regional office along Escario St. in Cebu City.
“Cebu has always been an important base of AXA Philippines,” said Rein Hermans, president and chief executive officer of AXA Philippines, citing Cebu’s robust business developments and growing population.
Last year’s calamities—the earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu in October, plus typhoon Yolanda less than a month later—also opened people’s eyes to the importance of insurance, company officials said.
Hermans added that the continued growth of their business nationwide is also reflected in the growth of their business in Cebu and the entire Visayas. “We are growing along with the domestic growth story very well,” said Hermans in a media roundtable discussion yesterday.
According to BJ Legaspi, AXA Philippines sales director for Visayas-Mindanao, the firm’s growth in the Visayas in the past three years has been steady and consistent.
In 2013, its total sales agency went up by 68 percent to P175 million compared to its output in 2011 of P104 million. Cebu sales stood at P135 million, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the Visayas regions’ business.
Legaspi said that the company expects a banner year for Cebu this year as it has already produced P122 million in sales as of the third quarter, on track to generating P162 million.
“With these developments, we are optimistic to exceed the figures in Cebu. We are growing and expanding our business to our new branches here,” said Legaspi.
AXA Philippines also recorded an increase in the number of financial advisors in Cebu from 281 in 2011 to 328 this year. Legaspi said they are looking to expand further and recruit more.
“On top of expanding our presence in Cebu, we are also looking at other key cities to penetrate in the Visayas,” he said.
AXA Philippines currently has 28 branches nationwide. This year alone, the company opened new branches in Dagupan and Baguio. It will also re-launch its branch operations in Tacloban.
Rahul Hora, chief agency officer of AXA Philippines, said the addition of two branches of AXA in Cebu also means an opportunity for them to expand their financial literacy program in this region.
“We are becoming more customer-centric by conducting free financial literacy seminars,” said Hora, who emphasized that alongside the improvement of Cebu’s economy is a heightened awareness of financial literacy.
Hora said many Filipinos are still under-insured, a challenge most insurance firms continue to address through various programs due to the lack of awareness.
“The thing with us Filipinos is that we wait for something bad to happen before we realize the importance of getting ourselves, our children and our property insured,” said Legaspi.
While AXA is catering to all market segments, Hora said they are focused on growing the younger segment of the market and have come up with easy-to-understand and affordable insurance packages that fit their needs.
“We encourage the young professionals to set aside a portion of their savings for insurance and start at an early age so they’ll be more prepared with the ‘what if’s’ in life,” said Hora.
Aside from encouraging more Filipinos to get the usual insurance products, the firm is also active in promoting health insurance as they complement the existing HMOs of employees.
“This is to prepare them for whatever catastrophic illness they may encounter, as what the Department of Health calls it,” said Legaspi. This kind of illness, he added, can eat up 20 percent of a family’s annual income.
According to the Insurance Commission, the insurance penetration rate has increased in the past five years from 1.02 percent in 2009 to 1.9 percent in the first nine months of 2013, on the back of the new products and channels of distribution and the improving micro-insurance industry in the country.
The commission is targeting an increase in insurance penetration rate to three percent to be at par with neighboring countries.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 25, 2014.
