PRU LIFE Insurance Corp. of UK Philippines (Pru Life UK) aims to grow its premiums faster than the industry this year, driven by its agency force expansion.
“We’re also focusing on growing our in-force business by our annual premiums, and our target is to grow faster than industry. We grew 10% in 2024 against the industry’s 7%.” Pru Life UK Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Francis P. Ortega said at a briefing on Monday. “So, for 2025, we need to sustain our market leadership and so we have to grow faster than our competitors. We’ve been leveraging our very successful agency force. There is still focus on continuing to grow our agency force and also looking for alternative partners that can distribute our products.”
Pru Life UK booked a premium income of P48.15 billion in 2024, ranking second in the life sector, latest data from the Insurance Commission (IC) showed. Its net income stood at P3.72 billion.
The life insurer will also launch new products to help sustain its customers and cushion for risks stemming from market volatility, Mr. Ortega added.
“If there is any downside, it’s similar to what other competitors are facing. We’ve been building on traditional products as well as our variable universal life (VUL) products. Market movements play an important role in sustaining our customers, so we, through our product development, we hope that we are able to at least minimize the risk in terms of market movements,” he said. “We’re planning to come up with a couple of innovative products to address the needs of our customers.”
Last year, the company launched three traditional life policies, which brought the share of traditional products in its new business to 6%.
Mr. Ortega said Pru Life UK’s environmental, social and governance targets also include its takaful products.
The company hopes to launch its first takaful life insurance product soon, Pru Life UK President and Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Chakrabarty said at the same briefing. “I would not give a specific date because we are still waiting for the product to be specifically approved by the Insurance Commission. But my understanding is we’re very very close. I do think sometime in April we should be able to roll out the product itself.”
Mr. Ortega added that their first takaful product would likely be an individual policy.
“What we are working on is an individual life product for the household clients. That will be our initial focus and we’re bringing down the minimum payment to a micro level, so it might be considered as microinsurance,” he said.
The insurer received its takaful window license from the IC in November last year. Takaful is a type of Islamic insurance where members contribute a certain sum of money to a common pool. Takaful insurance needs to be compliant with Shari’ah law, which prohibits riba (interest), al-maisir (gambling), and al-gharar (uncertainty) principles. — A.M.C. Sy
