Insular Life (InLife) received Insurance Commission’s (IC) approval on 08 March 2017 to engage in Bancassurance activities with partner, Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP). This new distribution channel is pursuant to Title 9, Chapter IV of Republic Act No. 10607, otherwise known as the Amended Insurance Code, and the Insurance Commission’s (IC) Circular Letter 2015-20 dated 27 April 2015. Inlife has a 16.21% stake in UBP and thus satisfies the cross-ownership condition precedent to the approval of Certificate of Authority by IC (per IC Circular Letter 2016-53).
For its part, UBP received approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on 30 March 2017 pursuant to Section X172 and its subsections of the Manual of Regulations for Banks.
The two companies adopted the Bancassurance model by forming a unique distribution partnership called “Union For Life”. This model is unlike other joint venture models used by earlier Bancassurance partnerships in the country.