Allianz PNB Life executive talks about digitalization in the insurance sector at Asian Banking and Finance Summit 2022

Allianz PNB Life’s Chief Marketing Officer, Gino Riola, joined some of Asia’s top bank executives and finance industry experts as a keynote speaker and panelist at the Asian Banking and Finance (ABF) Summit 2022. The three-day event was held last June 15 to 17.

The ABF has facilitated several virtual conferences in the last two years, such as the 2020-2021 ABF Retail Banking Conferences and the FSI Conference. This year, the ABF Summit aimed to explore the digitalization of the financial services sector, and cover pressing topics such as fintech, data analytics, and issues that may arise due to this new and rising trend.

Riola, together with the Director of Simon Kucher & Partners Chetan Prakash and Chief Technical Officer of Sompo Holdings Asia Aditya Vardhan Tibrewala, took part in a panel discussion moderated by ABF Publisher Tim Charlton about digitalization in the insurance space. Riola pointed out the low insurance penetration rate in the Philippines and emphasized how utilizing data and technology helps Allianz PNB Life reach more prospects and develop products that its customer base needs.

“Digitalization for us is extremely important in terms of reaching out to customers and prospects. It provides an avenue for stimulating, productive conversations with the customer, fostering interactions with them that are both timely and relevant,” said Riola. “Here in the Philippines, insurance penetration rate is 2%. Because of the pandemic, digitalization ensures that we have more effective ways of reaching our customers.”

Riola further explained how Allianz PNB Life also ensures that its current customers have access to their policies.

“We work very closely with our Life Changers or financial insurance agents, because they enable more effective conversations with clients,” he stated. “We want insurance to be a product that people [are not] afraid of. Through our agents, our customers can have access to all the resources they need to make informed decisions regarding the security of their future.”

Riola also briefly introduced the Vivy app, an all-in-one hub for every customer’s protection and health needs. The app marks Allianz PNB Life’s latest venture into digitalization, allowing the company to bring relevant protection and health content to its users. The goal of the project is to help customers learn about their own health conditions as well as the important role insurance will play in securing their future.

“Technology is a means to an end, not the end itself,” Riola highlighted. “It is a means of getting faster to the consumer, [and] also helps in terms of better understanding the consumers and the policyholders that we already have. We can then improve our services and processes, but more importantly, [develop] new solutions that when we created the product we weren’t already thinking of.”

For more information on the Allianz Healthbox, Allianz Vivy app, and other products and services Allianz PNB Life offers, please visit www.allianzpnblife.ph.

Allianz Global Wealth Report 2022 sees positive outcomes in financial asset growth and insurance coverage for PH

Leading global insurance brand Allianz has recently released its Allianz Global Wealth Report 2022, which compounds facts and figures based on the asset and debt situation of households in almost 60 countries, including the Philippines.

According to the report, 2019 to 2021 saw an exponential boom in the growth of global financial assets, with bullish stock markets powered by monetary policy and an increase in private wealth among households. Asia (excluding Japan), Eastern Europe and North America stood out as major contributors to asset growth, and savings were powered primarily by bank deposits, insurance and pensions.

UnionBank joins PSE Investment Forum 2022, talks crypto as future of banking, finance

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer and Chief Transformation Officer Henry Aguda joined discussions on digital and crypto assets as the future of financial investments at the recently concluded PSE Investment Forum 2022.

As the country’s first bank to successfully carry out financial transactions through blockchain, UnionBank attests to the use of the technology in banking securely and efficiently. Blockchain can thus, be applied in a wide array of use cases.

“In fact, one of the very good applications we started with early on, was how to address the problem where rural banks don't have access to one another; and to the basic banking requirements in the industry,” Aguda explained.