Singlife Philippines Inc. has named Allen Reyes as its new chief executive, promoting him from chief financial officer of the digital life insurer. The company announced the appointment on October 5. Reyes replaces Lester Cruz, who is leaving after two years in the role, and takes over at a point when the company says it is close to turning a profit.
Reyes brings about 30 years of experience in banking, insurance and global shared services. Before joining Singlife, he was chief financial officer of Security Bank Corp., and he has held senior posts at Diageo, Sony Global Services and Deutsche Bank. He studied at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and completed the Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme at the University of Oxford. Moving a finance chief into the top job puts someone closely familiar with the insurer’s numbers in charge as it works towards breaking even. It also keeps the leadership change internal, which limits disruption for a company that has spent its early years building a customer base from scratch.
In a statement, Singlife thanked Cruz for his leadership and contributions. Speaking at a roundtable before his departure, Cruz said the company was “nearing profitability” and expected to beat its 2025 performance in customer growth and revenue. Unaudited Insurance Commission data show Singlife narrowed its net loss to P300.66 million in 2025 from P428.67 million in 2024.
The insurer said its customer count and new business revenue each rose 23 per cent year on year, while premium income grew 1.8 per cent to P496.81 million. Those figures show a company still adding customers far faster than it is adding premium income, which places cost control and product mix among the issues the new chief executive will need to manage. The narrower loss suggests the gap is closing, but the insurer remained in the red last year on the regulator’s preliminary numbers.
Singlife said it will continue to invest in digital insurance and in strategic partnerships, with the aim of giving more Filipinos access to financial protection through its Singlife PH app. The insurer’s 23 per cent growth in both customers and new business revenue gives the incoming chief executive a base to work from. Under Reyes, the company’s task is to turn the growth in sign-ups into profit, the milestone Cruz said was within reach before he left.
