Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer by market value, will double the number of agents it has in Taiwan to more than 3,000 this year to boost sales in its second-largest Asian market after South Korea.
Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Co (安聯人壽) had 1,633 agents at the end of last year, an increase of 30 percent from a year earlier, Chris James, chief executive officer of the Taipei-based insurer, said at a briefing yesterday.
Allianz plans to “develop more traditional protection products” this year, James said.
Sales agents brought in 13 percent of first-year premiums last year, compared with 75 percent from bancassurance, said Andreas Rosenthal, executive vice president at Allianz Taiwan.
The insurer sells its policies through 33 local banks, he said.
Sales in the first quarter in Taiwan rose three times from the preceding quarter, James said.
First-quarter revenue reached NT$7.8 billion (US$230 million) from NT$2.4 billion. Allianz Taiwan ranked ninth in Taiwan in terms of total premiums as of the end of last month, he said.
Taiwan is Allianz’s sixth-largest life insurance market by gross premiums. The Munich-based company’s continued investment and its move to increase the number of agents differentiated it from Prudential PLC of the UK and ING Groep NV of the Netherlands regarding their business plans for the Taiwanese market.
In February, Prudential sold the the assets and liabilities of its local arm, PCA Life Assurance Co (保誠人壽), to China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) for the nominal sum of NT$1.
The deal was expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year, pending regulatory approvals, the British firm said at the time.
In October last year, ING announced it would sell its Taiwanese subsidiary, ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰人壽), to Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) for US$600 million through stock swaps. The deal was closed in February.
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