ITA, the first international life company from the Americas to join the Association of International Life Offices (AILO), already has a foothold in North Asia with a representative office in Hong Kong but it has recently acquired a Labuan licence and plans to set up an office in Kuala Lumpur later this year.
The key focus of Pain’s role will be on this business development in Asia as well as looking at new markets in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe.
His move coincides with Friends Life’s appointment of James Lai-Hing Tan as the new general manager for its Asia and Middle East operation.
Pain, who will be based in the UK, said he had the opportunity to join a number of large companies: “But on reflection I felt they were too similar to my previous role at Friends and I really wanted to get involved in something new.”
ITA is at a similar relative size to Friends Provident International seven years ago and therefore the opportunity to join “was a perfect fit,” he said.
Regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority as an international insurance company ITA was founded ten years ago with the majority of its 42,000 policyholders to date drawn from Latin America and Asia Pacific. It has $705m assets under management with three regular premium and four single premium products, specialising in investment-linked insurance, and pipeline plans for a personalised portfolio bond.
Pain said he enjoyed his career most when developing a business from its early stages such as the setting up of Friends direct sales force in the early 1990s and building Friends Provident International after the acquisition of Royal & Sun Alliance International Financial Services in the early 2000s.
He highlighted that he wanted to “take the company down a sustainable growth path”, not offering full indemnity commission, and backed by “superb” technology that enables electronic processing and well-designed products.
“ITA has a great set of people who understand the industry and believe in customer service as a real differentiator wherever they work in the business. The values and beliefs of the company closely match mine which was essential to me joining. I have never been as excited as now in my career to date,” he said.
Pain will represent ITA at AILO where he continues as deputy chair with ongoing plans to grow its membership. South African group Sanlam Global Investors has become AILO’s latest full member.
