European insurer Allianz has entered Japan’s life insurance market
following receipt of a licence from the Japanese Financial Services
Agency on 7 March 2008. Quick off the mark, Allianz Life Insurance
Japan (ALIJ) has launched its first product, a variable annuity
(VA) offering a guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit, regardless
of market performance.
Commenting, ALIJ’s chairman and representative director, Uwe
Michel, said: “We are committed to building a long-term sustainable
business in Japan by providing an innovative range of variable
annuities [and other products] in partnership with financial
institutions.”
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As its first distribution partner, ALIJ has selected stockbroking
and financial services company Nikko Cordial Securities, a unit of
US bank Citigroup. Bond accounts offered to investors in ALIJ’s VA
are managed by an Allianz unit, PIMCO Japan, while equity
investment accounts are managed by UK bank Barclays’ Barclays
Global Investors’ Japanese unit.
ALIJ’s selection of a stockbroker as its distribution partner
emulates the strategy adopted by US insurer The Hartford when it
launched its first VA product in Japan in late 2000 and went on to
become the top player in Japan’s VA market. According to The
Hartford, at the end of 2007 it had $37.6 billion in assets under
management in Japan, of which VA assets accounted for $35.8
billion. The Hartford’s VA market share as at 30 September 2007 was
24.2 percent.
