Pan American Life profits up

A performance review of Pan American Life Insurance Group (Palig) regional operations since its acquisition of American Insurance Group (Algico) in November last year, shows that profits are up. So said chairman, president and chief executive officer, Jose Suquet.

“We got a performance review of T&T and the whole region and I was very pleased to see that despite all of the turmoil that comes with an acquisition and the changes we are up five or six per cent over the last year,” he said. Suquet announced the promising figures at Palig’s VIP cocktail reception held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad in Port-of-Spain, on October 17.

He lauded the team of agency managers and agents for believing in the brand and underscored the importance of the Caribbean market in Palig’s strategic forecast for growth. “The Caribbean will now represent 11 per cent of our total revenue, and what that means is that it becomes a very important part of our strategy. We plan to invest in T&T.

We are confident in the business opportunity here. You have a serious and sophisticated business community here that we think is very appropriate for the type of business that we do—in the life and health business—whether it’s the individual marketplace or the corporate or multi-national marketplace. We feel that there is a very good and solid rule of law and that’s very important for a company that wants to invest capital in a country,” he said.

Referring to the passage of impending insurance legislation by the Government of T&T, Suquet expressed optimism that the suite of measures will help the regulatory environment in this country.

He praised the role of the Central Bank of T&T and the role of its supervisor of financial institutions, Carl Hiralal. The Palig official commended the thorough approach of the Central Bank as it relates to the new insurance brand’s entry into the market. He said it was good to deal with a regulatory authority that was first class.

“That’s also very important for the financial stability of a country and or industry. As we have gone through the Caribbean there is still tremendous trepidation about the impact of the financial failure and we have gone in there, shared our strategy, shared our vision, shared our financial strength and the way we want to do business.

Throughout the region we have been warmly received. We plan to invest in our people, in our facility, in our technology, in our service platform and in our new product offering,” said Suquet.