The Insular Life Assurance Company, Ltd, the first and largest Filipino life insurance company  drew on its 99 years of experience and  expertise to achieve a consolidated net income of P2.12 billion in 2009 amidst the challenges of a global recession and domestic economic slowdown.

Total consolidated revenues went up to P12.6 billion, the bulk of which came from an increase in gross earned premiums reaching P7.5 billion; investment income and other recurring income streams accounted for P5.2 billion.

“Our continuous drive to strengthen our product streams, our strategic approach to investment, and our renewed focus on efficiency, propelled us to respond to the challenging business environment and achieve respectable growth in 2009,” says Insular Chairman of the Board and CEO Vicente R. Ayllón at the firm’s recently held Annual Members Meeting.

“As we geared up for our centennial celebration, we made sure that we were the “first to market” two new endowment products  -  the Peso Earner and the Dollar Endowment 5. Since we introduced these products in the first half of 2009, we generated strong new business premiums, which we sustained throughout the year. This enabled us to be the only top-ranked insurer in the industry to post a positive growth of 17% in new sales revenues during the year,”  reported Ayllón.

“We  continued to build our fixed-income portfolio to ensure a steady flow of recurring income stream.  We invested P2.8 billion in term loans to several  leading local companies involved in key industries such as property development, power generation and distribution, and telecommunications, further contributing  to a 38.6% growth in interest income.  We also made substantial investments in peso and dollar bonds, thus, posting a 9% growth in our bond portfolio which brought in higher interest income of P1.6 billion,” reports Ayllón.     

Insular remains to be the largest Filipino life insurance company with total assets amounting to P63.3 billion,  up by 9% from the previous year’s figure.   Total members’ equity also increased by 10% to reach P14 billion.  Meanwhile, total policyholder benefits, claims,  changes in legal policy reserves and other operating expenses amounted to P 10.3 billion.   Dividends to individual life insurance policyholders increased to P 1.2 billion from P1.1 billion in 2008.  

Poised to make its centennial year, 2010, even better, Insular Life registered a remarkable first four months total premiums reaching P2.1 billion.