BNP Paribas Assurance TCB Life Insurance Co (合作金庫人壽) said yesterday that it reported premium income of NT$20 billion (US$625.2 million) in its first four months in business, as it strives to become one of the nation’s top five bancassurance companies.
In April, the Taipei-based life insurer said at a launch ceremony that it aimed to achieve a one-year premium objective of NT$50 billion within three years of operation.
“It has been only four months, and we have already achieved NT$20 billion in premiums. That’s indeed better than we expected,” Ingrid Kuo (郭韋辰), a project manager at the insurance company, told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The company said that its monthly premium incomes from new policies ranked among the top three among life insurance firms selling insurance through banks in May and June. Last month’s ranking is expected to be released in a few days, it added.
Last month, BNP Paribas Assurance TCB Life Insurance posted a premium income of NT$5.86 billion, following NT$5.5 billion in June, NT$5.9 billion in May and NT$2 billion in April, the company’s data showed. Kuo said the investment environment improved last year following the global financial crisis in 2008.
The company remained conservative about prospects for reaching its one-year premium objective of NT$50 billion in its first year because of economic uncertainty.
“Many people are still uncertain about the economic recovery and thus tend to choose more stable investment instruments, such as insurance products,” she said.
The bancassurance company is a joint venture between the Taiwan Cooperative Bank (TCB, 合作金庫) and France-based BNP Paribas Assurance, leveraging the French company’s leadership in global mortgage insurance and TCB’s position in the local mortgage loan business.
In addition to protection-linked and savings-oriented insurance products, the bancassurance firm has recently rolled out investment-linked products in the hope of completing its product line, aimed at providing customers with “one-stop shopping” services to meet greater demand.
“With the new products available in the market, we expect that our premium incomes will continue to grow,” Kuo said.
However, she declined to project how much of an increase in premiums the investment-linked products could bring to the company.
In April, company chairman Fan Yang-jen (范揚禎) said the company is expected to rank among the top 10 insurers in Taiwan following its operations this year, and will break even within three years.
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