PCA Life Insurance Co. Ltd a life insurance unit of U.K.-based Prudential plc, has ended sales of new policies in Japan as of Jan. 15.
The new business suspension is for all products lines including whole life medical insurance, whole life cancer insurance, new increasing term insurance, term insurance, endowment insurance and variable annuities.
“The decision to suspend new business was made in careful consideration of the local business environment in Japan and other factors over the past year,” said Chad Tendler, Prudential’s spokesman in Asia. The suspension of new business would be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
In Japan, PCA Life will continue to serve existing customers, without change to any content and obligations on existing policies, said the insurer in a statement. The company had 170,000 policies as of September 2009. With total assets of 178 billion yen (US$1.96 billion), its solvency margin ratio stood at 1,262.3 with a substantial capital position, the insurer said.
In Japan, Prudential also owns wealth management unit PCA Asset Management, which will be unaffected by its affiliate’s suspension of new business.
The U.K.-based insurer’s focus in the Japan market will be to sustain the same quality of service to existing policyholders, said Prudential.
PCA Life was formed by the acquisition of Orico Life Insurance in 2001. In the 2008 fiscal year ended March 2009, its total in-force policies amounted 376 billion yen and new policies totalled 19.6 billion yen. Total premium income was 35.6 billion yen.
