North American insurance brands have recovered more strongly than their Asian peers are from the pandemic, with big insurers GEICO, Progressive, Canada Life and Chubb all achieving significant growth.

Brand consultancy, Brand Finance has issued its annual Brand Finance Insurance 100 raking with the big winners from North America. GEICO saw its brand value leap 18%, Progressive jumped 25%, Canada Life rose 51% and Chubb rose 48%.

“While the Western world looks beyond COVID, Chinese insurance brands continue to face extremely challenging conditions,” the report stated. Ping An’s brand value fell 4% but remains the world’s most valuable insurance brand, having been “stuck behind the COVID curtain of widespread continuing lockdowns”.

“Ping An remains a very valuable brand whilst Brand Finance’s research in China further reveals the brand to be extremely strong and perceived by customers as a trustworthy insurance partner,” it added.

Germany’s Allianz saw its brand value increase 15% in doing so overtaking China Life to become the second most valuable insurance brand in the world. “Allianz’s 15% growth in brand value was larger than any of the other top five insurance brands in the world, and reflective of further improvements in both brand strength and brand relevance as it takes advantage of post-COVID opportunities,” according to the report.

Besides Ping An, other Chinese insurance brands China Life one rank, from 2nd to 3rd, CPIC (brand rose 2% and AIA fell 8%. All faced lacklustre performances as large swathes of China head into further severe lockdowns.

Hugo Hensley, Associate Director at Brand Finance, commented: “Across the Western world, COVID restrictions are being lifted at various speeds, while in China, new restrictions are being imposed. These radically divergent policy prescriptions are correlated with very different movements in brand value. The North American and European insurance brands are bouncing back and building for the post-COVID world.”

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