MET LIFE coming to T&T?
By Randy Howard,
New CEO at the helm of stricken CLICO.
Barbados Advocate
It is expected that in the near future that there will be a resurgence of American insurance
companies operating in the Caribean. Read more….
IT is expected that in the near future that there will be a
resurgence of American insurance companies operating in the
Caribbean region.
However, officials of the Sagicor Group of Companies (Sagicor) are
highly confident of maintaining their healthy market share.
A few weeks ago Winston Williams, Branch Manager of Sagicor Life,
told the media at the “Blast Off 2010” conference held by the
Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (BARAIFA),
that there is a great likelihood that major international players in
the industry will be entering into the regional market in the near
future, thereby providing competition for Caribbean based companies.
He indicated that this is likely to start in Trinidad and Tobago,
with American firm, MetLife, having bought out the portfolio of AIG,
which held control of American Life Insurance Company (ALICO).
He also argued that if the firm makes an entry into Trinidad, that
they are not going to come by and just exist there, and the question
that would have to be asked is “who’s going to be next and where are
they going to go next?”
Last week during a teleconference with the media to discuss their
performance for the financial year ended December 31st, 2009,
President and CEO of Sagicor, Dodridge Miller, stated that this is a
potential development that they are not that worried about.
“I would say that foreign companies are not new, they’ve been here
before, and for various reasons they’ve left”, he said. “We’ve
competed against them for a number of years, remember Sagicor has
been around since 1840, so we’re not overly concerned about
international companies coming into the market.”
He made the point that because Sagicor is now an international
company with operations in the United States and the United Kingdom,
they have already proven that they can compete against the world’s
larger companies.
“We are in their market and competing against them; we have a
reasonably solid market share in most of the geographies that we
operate in, and I think that is a pretty good way to defend yourself
against foreign competition”, he stated.
Miller also made the point that customers must be aware of the fact
that bigger and foreign does not necessarily mean better, and that
they must look carefully at the products and services that are being
provided.
“We are aware that some of our people think that because sometimes
they are coming from a foreign market that they are better, but we
believe that our products and services are sufficiently strong to
withstand those types of engagements from foreign competition”, he
said.