The business venture of Sun Life of Canada is planning to develop its BPO operations in the country. The company will take advantage of the Filipinos' good English communication skills. The firm will allot 200 seats that will handle their information technology requirements in US and Canada transactions. About 500 seats will also serve IT requirements of Sun Life and Canada. In India, the financial giant operates about 1,000 BPO seats. Sun Life also outsourced in Ireland. The Sun Life unit in the Philippines will be located in its new 14-story headquarters in Fort Bonifacio. This will attract multinational giants like Nokia and Philips. Recently, Sun Life also invested in the Yuchengcos' insurance unit Grepalife.This will assist them in the cross-selling of insurance products using various bank branches. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. will be the vehicle in selling variable unit-linked insurance (VUL).

VUL, a hybrid between a mutual fund and life insurance, becomes variable as investment returns are dependent on the market performance of the fund where the premium is invested.

According to Mantaring, in 2007 or before the US subprime crisis, VUL comprised 90 percent of the company's sale of protection products. In 2008-2009, it changes to traditional life insurance which splits the business segments consistently. But this year, even there is an economic crisis, VUL has become the leading segment again, about 80 percent of the business increases. Mantaring added that there is a lot of potential for Sun Life to grow the business especially because only 14 percent of Filipinos have insurance coverage, including group insurance. Mylene Lopa, Sun Life's chief marketing officer in the Philippines, explained that the company's financial literacy program was starting to gain profit because more than 60 percent of respondents in a recent survey were now thinking of financial planning. [via business.inquirer.net]