Sun Life Grepa Financial Inc., the joint-venture between Sun Life Philippines and the Yuchengco-led Grepa Life, sees opportunity amid the low insurance penetration rate in the Philippines.
Riza Mantaring, Sun Life Grepa board director, said as the economy transitions to an upper middle-income economy, insurance appreciation in the Philippines is likely to improve.
Mantaring said from 2 percent in previous years, the industry’s contribution to GDP shrank to 1.68 percent as of the third quarter of last year.
“Insurance typically tends to take off once we reach a certain level of per capita GDP, which we did. Unfortunately, the pandemic started and threw everything upside down,” she said.
“Filipinos don’t go out looking for insurance. They are more about being approached and convinced that life insurance is good for them,” she said.
Mantaring said the industry is in the midst of a “massive transformation.” For one, Mantaring said digital transformation is helping make insurance accessible to the public.
Mantaring cited the need to stimulate change in client behavior and to introduce legislations that will shape and potentially accelerate industry growth.