The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, allowed East West Banking Corp. to cross-sell insurance products.
“This is to inform the exchange that the Monetary Board approved the request of East West Banking Corp. to cross-sell certain individual and group insurance products of East West Ageas Life Insurance Corp. subject to regulatory conditions,” EastWest said in disclosure to the stock exchange Friday.
EastWest signed a joint-venture agreement with Ageas Insurance International N.V. of the Netherlands in May 2015 to create a life insurance company called East West Ageas Life Insurance Corp.
Ageas Insurance International is a global insurance company that offers life, non-life, healthcare and disability insurance products and mortgage and savings products.
The company, formerly known as Fortis Insurance International N.V., is based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with operations in Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom.
EastWest will sell life insurance products through its various sales channels via an arms’ length 20-year distribution agreement with the new joint-venture company.
EastWest said that through the joint venture, it aimed to complete its line of product offerings to customers and take advantage of the developing life insurance market in the Philippines.
The initial paid-in capital of East West Ageas Life is P2 billion. The bank holds 50 percent minus one share while Ageas has 50 percent plus one share of the firm.
EastWest posted a 21-percent decline in net income to P1.3 billion in the first nine months of 2015 from P1.64 billion a year ago due to lower trading gains and higher provisions.
Gross revenues grew 8.8 percent to P11.91 billion from P10.94 billion in the same period last year, while expenses jumped 16 percent to P10.25 billion from P8.84 billion.
Total assets surged 28 percent to P213.5 billion as of end-September 2015, while total capital grew 46 percent to P30.6 billion.