Taishin Life Insurance Co Ltd (台新人壽), a new life insurance unit of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), aims to generate first-year premiums (FYPs) of NT$4 billion (US$142.93 million) during the second half of this year, the insurer’s chairman Barry Tsai (蔡康) said at its opening ceremony in Taipei yesterday.
Taishin Financial completed its acquisition of Prudential Life Insurance Co of Taiwan (保德信人壽) on June 30, and gained approval from the Ministry on Economic Affairs to change the insurer’s name to Taishin Life on Aug. 10. The opening ceremony for the insurance subsidiary was held in front of what used to be Prudential Life’s headquarters.
Taishin Life’s insurance policy sales grew rapidly last month after it was integrated into Taishin Financial, as it gained assistance from the financial conglomerate’s banking arm, Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), in marketing the policies, Tsai told reporters at the ceremony.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
It generated first-year premiums of NT$939 million last month, 20 times the first-year premiums in June and 274 percent greater than cumulative first-year premiums of NT$251 million for the first six months of this year, Tsai said.
More than 90 percent of last month’s sales were generated through Taishin Bank’s marketing channels, he added.
“We will hit NT$4 billion in first-year premiums for the second half of this year, based on our marketing performance so far,” Tsai said, adding that Taishin Life would concentrate on selling US dollar-denominated policies.
Given its increasing revenue, the life insurer would put more funds in areas such as local stocks, foreign stocks and bonds, and real estate, Taishin Financial president Welch Lin (林維俊) told reporters.
Taishin Life is not a large-scale operation, but it is built on a solid foundation, as Prudential Life had been rewarded by the Financial Supervisory Commission for how well its operations were run for 10 years in a row, Lin said.
The new unit contributed profits of NT$300 million last month, he said.
“This year was the 20th year since Taishin Financial was launched, and we finally have three engines: banks, securities and insurance... We aim to catch up with our peers,” Lin said.
Taishin Financial said it would help Taishin Life develop new products, while the life insurer, which has 680 sales agents, would recruit more staff and enhance its investment team to boost competitiveness.
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