Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial plans to increase its roster of agents in Hong Kong and use the city as a launch pad to expand into other Asian markets to capture growing opportunities in the region, according to its Asia head.
“We are based in Hong Kong, which is our regional headquarters,” said Ingrid Johnson, president of Sun Life Asia, in an interview. “It has served us extremely well because Hong Kong is a fantastic location from where we can travel around the region easily.”
The insurer has wholly owned operations in the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore, as well as joint ventures in Malaysia, India and mainland China. The company has been operating in Asia for 131 years, serving 25 million clients across the region with its army of 30,000 employees and 97,000 financial advisers.
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Sun Life’s planned expansion matches the vision of Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who wants more international insurers to base themselves in the city to oversee their Asia operations.
Ingrid Johnson, president of Sun Life Asia, says the company will focus on hiring quality agents. Photo: May Tse alt=Ingrid Johnson, president of Sun Life Asia, says the company will focus on hiring quality agents. Photo: May Tse>
“We certainly would like to see more cross-selling of products among our customers,” Johnson said. “We have over 1 million clients in Hong Kong, but less than 20 per cent have life, health and wealth with us. So that is an opportunity.”
In April, Sun Life opened a 23,000 sq ft customer centre at The Gateway in the tourist hotspot of Tsim Sha Tsui, joining peers such as HSBC Life, Manulife, Prudential and Standard Chartered who have set up such dedicated customer centres over the past two years to tap wealthy clients.
“While we are a late entrant in creating this client space, we have raised the bar in terms of client experience,” Johnson said. “The new centre has helped boost sales.”
Sun Life said new policy sales in Hong Kong rose fourfold year on year in the second quarter, with mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong accounting for more than 20 per cent of the total, up from 10 per cent before the pandemic.
The strong growth in Hong Kong, alongside doubling of sales in mainland China and 39 per cent jump in India during the second quarter contributed to a 25 per cent increase in profit to C$150 million (US$111.9 million) for the quarter ended June in the region, while its insurance sales rose 51 per cent to C$450 million.
The insurer’s underlying profit in Asia rose 36 per cent over five years from C$461 million in 2017 to C$627 million last year.
Johnson said Sun Life will continue to invest in agents but will focus on quality instead of quantity.
“We are investing very carefully to pursue quality agents to make sure that we do not end up getting people who just care about the money,” she said. “As such, we do not want to just expand the number of the agents, but we want to invest in facilities and technology to enhance their productivity and services to customers.”
The expansion plan in Hong Kong comes as Sun Life is eyeing growth in the Greater Bay Area, Johnson said. Sun Life has an insurance joint venture in mainland China with Everbright Group, allowing its banking partner China Everbright Bank to sell in the region that comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.
Johnson was appointed Asia president at the end of 2021, relocating to Hong Kong from London in January last year and undergoing mandatory quarantine when the city was in grip of the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Johnson has put the trauma of settling in the city behind her, rating Hong Kong highly for ease of doing business, good food and hiking trails.
“Hong Kong is a beautiful city,” she said. “It is not until you arrive here that you see the ease with which we can live, and the government has set all the necessary structures to support society to live very comfortably.”
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
