Ageas and EastWest Bank establish a life insurance joint venture (JV) in the Philippines

The JV called "EastWest Ageas Life" will be a start-up company in which Ageas and EastWest Bank will both have an equal  shareholding of 50%^1. It was further agreed that EastWest Bank and EastWest Ageas Life will enter into a 20-year exclusive distribution agreement.

The ambition is to build the premier bancassurance business in the Philippines offering tailor-made insurance solutions to the customers of EastWest Bank supported by high quality service and state-of-art technology. The insurance business will benefit from EastWest Bank's fast growing customer base. With more than 400 branch stores, the bank has the 7th largest distribution network amongst banks in the Philippines. Ageas will contribute its proven bancassurance skills and best practices from its successful businesses in Asia and Europe.

Tony C. Moncupa Jr., President and CEO of EastWest Bank commented: "We have always viewed bancassurance as an integral part of our business model. We see it as a necessary ingredient to have complete product offerings for the financial services needs of our target market segments. Specifically, the consumer and middle market corporate segments. We are pleased to partner with Ageas, one of the major insurance providers in the world. In Ageas, we are comfortable that we have a common set of objectives and aligned philosophy on how to best serve our customers. For us in EastWest Bank, alignment is most important and it is the reason why we both agreed to enter into a JV and a long-term exclusive distribution agreement for the JV's life insurance products. We are confident this partnership will help EastWest Bank to continue to be among the fastest growing banks in the country."

Gary Crist, CEO of Ageas Asia commented: "As part of our Asia strategy, we have made no secret that we wish to enter the Philippines as the insurance market is highly attractive with a population of around 100 million people, a fast growing middle class and low insurance penetration. The potential is huge given that the current Life insurance penetration rate of around 1.5% is one of the lowest in Asia. We are very pleased to be a partner to EastWest Bank which has a strong management and clear ambition to grow. We are convinced that together we can deliver another successful partnership in Asia."