Sun Life bullish on Asia, plans BPO hub in RP
Posted August 04, 2008MANILA, Philippines--Toronto-based global financial services group Sun Life Finance Inc. is upbeat on investing in Asia despite rising consumer price pressures as it plans to tap the Philippines, one of its major markets over the last 113 years, as a business process outsourcing (BPO) hub.
In an interview Friday, visiting Sun Life global CEO Donald Stewart said economic fundamentals in Asia were so strong and the prospects very promising given its large and very young population and that the recent global credit crunch would not likely have a lingering adverse impact on the group's operations.
"I visit very frequently to Asia. From a world perspective, there's so much happening in Asia. The economy is forging considerably ahead faster than North America and anybody who's interested in international business as Sun Life would spend time in Asia," he said.
Stewart said the US credit crunch and rising inflation would have some impact on business in Asia, but these would not affect Sun Life's long-term confidence on the region.
"We're a long-term player," he said.
He said Asia was so far contributing 5 percent of the group's net profit and this was expected to surge in the near future.
"That undervalues Asia's contribution because we're still investing in China and India but growth there is so rapid," Stewart said. "It won't be long before it takes a bigger proportion."
There are lot of new opportunities for Sun Life in the Philippines, he said.
Sun Life Financial president for Asia Stephan Rajotte said the financial services conglomerate was significantly investing in research in each country through Sun Life's study of lifestyles, attitudes and relations (Solar), which would then shape up the company's product offerings and business strategy in each market.
Rajotte said the Philippines was not only contributing to Sun Life's bottom line, being one of the group's early markets in the region, but also contributing human and technology resources to the group.
"People in Canada have heard about this and are now looking into exporting these kinds of services and technology to Canada. So it doesn't go only one way," he said.
Sun Life has a shared services operation in the Philippines with 160 people--consisting of IT experts, auditors, accountants and actuaries--but this group is not yet formed as an independent BPO unit.
"We have plans to form it as BPO operations," Rajotte said. "The Philippines has all this technology so we want to bring that to other countries in Asia."
Rajotte said he was hoping to set up the operations this year, but it would all depend on how soon the group could get the regulatory and other business approvals.
"Our operation in the Philippines has some of the best technology for servicing customers. We do a lot of servicing for SMS, communication with agents on the status of their policy and their servicing of claims. We don't do that in the other countries in Asia," Rajotte said.
Sun Life, which pioneered life insurance in the Philippines in 1895, now has three major business lines in the country--life insurance, wealth management and pre-need.
Rajotte said the legislation of the Personal Equity Retirement Act, for instance, would allow the company to expand its asset management business.
Similar to a law that catapulted the mutual fund industry in the US, Pera is envisioned to allow investors to realize higher compounded gains for investments set aside each year for as long as the funds are left untouched until age 55.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 07, 2008
by Doris Dumlao
