British life insurer Pru Life UK, a subsidiary of international financial services group Prudential, is to establish an asset management and trust unit in the Philippines
British life insurer Pru Life UK, a subsidiary of international financial services group Prudential , is on-track to establish an asset management and trust unit in the Philippines before the end of the year.
The new unit will offer more diverse investments to Filipinos, as Prudential sees that equities and bond markets in the Philippines remain shallow.
Regulatory approvals have been secured from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to establish a new and wholly-owned unit offering asset management services and trust products, Pru Life UK president and CEO Antonio de Rosas said during a press conference.
The new company will be named Pru Life UK Asset Management and Trust Corp.
De Rosas said they are on-track to open an asset management company before the year ends,” De Rosas said. “We already got the license from the BSP already. It’s more on getting ourselves ready in time for our target launch which is before the end of the year.”
There’s a lot of things to do in terms of processes, governance, etc. to satisfy the requirements not only of the regulators, the BSP, but also their own internal governance requirements before the launch, he added.
He said that products to be offered through the asset management business are purely investments and do not have insurance coverage, thus, “we are flexible in the kind of products we will offer.” But their distinct advantage compared to other companies is they already have a big menu of funds offered by Eastspring, which are offshore funds that they can feed into, he added.
The company has six offshore funds that include the Asian Local Bond Fund, which was launched in 2013; the PRULink Dollar Bond Fund and the PRULink Asian Balanced Fund, all of which are managed by Singapore-based Eastspring Investments, which, in turn, is the Asian asset management business of Prudential.
De Rosas said these products cater to more aggressive investors and are part of the company’s “strategy in providing more diversification for our clients.”