CTBC Life Insurance Co (中信人壽), a subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), yesterday said it has completed the integration of the local unit of Canadian Manulife Insurance.
“After the integration, CTBC Life ranks in 18th place among domestic peers in terms of revenue, from 34th upon its creation in 2011, and aims to strengthen the sales of protection-type insurance policies,” CTBC Life chief executive officer Frank Ling (凌氤寶) said.
More than 90 percent of Manulife’s 234 back-office workers and 855 sales agents have agreed to stay, after CTBC Life said it would not alter their compensation packages for two years, Ling said.
Sales agents had underpinned Manulife’s business in Taiwan and may now help deepen CTBC Life’s service to its customers and boost overall revenue, he said.
Protection-type insurance policies generate better profits than investment-linked policies sold through bancassurance.
CTBC Bank (中信銀), the main source of income for CTBC Financial, has topped other lenders in bancassurance volume, driving the group to expand into the insurance business in the first place.
The integration of Manulife enabled CTBC Life to increase its employees to 1,991, boosted its total assets to NT$219.1 billion (US$7.32 billion) and increased its number of customers to 504,000 with 890,000 policies, Ling said.
The insurer is awaiting regulatory approval for integrating Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), as CTBC Financial seeks to improve its risk diversification by raising the profit contribution of the life insurance arm from 6 percent to 10 percent in the medium term, company data showed.
The banking unit generated 79 percent of the group’s earnings as of the end of September last year.
Meanwhile, Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday that it has completed acquisition of New York Life Insurance’s local unit, following the exit of the US insurer.
Yuanta Financial said it has carried out all the legal steps required to transfer ownership and has renamed the subsidiary Yuanta Life Insurance Co (元大人壽保險).
The realignment would benefit the group, which also owns the nation’s largest brokerage — Yuanta Securities (元大寶來證券) — as well as Yuanta Bank (元大銀行), the stock filing said.
Yuanta Life Insurance has called a board meeting and approved the election of the parent company’s president, Jason Wang (王正新), to lead the new insurer, the filing said.
Wang has a master’s degree in finance from National Chengchih University, and has previously served as executive vice president at Yuanta Financial, vice chairman of Yuanta Bank, chief executive officer of CTBC Financial, senior vice president of CTBC Bank and president of Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控).
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