Bancassurance firm BPI AIA announced the appointment of Karen Custodia as the new chief executive officer of BPI AIA, which took effect on Jan. 9, 2023. 

Custodia takes on the responsibility of overseeing BPI AIA’s growing Partnership Distribution Channel and managing its strategic relationship with BPI while providing leadership to support a wide range of initiatives.

Custodia replaced Surendra Menon, who served six years as BPI AIA CEO and was recently appointed as director of Partnership Distribution of AIA Indonesia. Custodia will work closely with and will be directly reporting to Kelvin Ang, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Philippines.

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“I am both proud and humbled to take on this new role at BPI AIA as we continue to provide Filipinos with the financial protection they need and encourage them to live longer, healthier, and better lives,” said Custodia. “We understand our consumers’ changing needs and we will continue to invest in innovations to fulfill our strong commitment to making insurance accessible, affordable, and personalized for every Filipino.”

Under her leadership, BPI AIA successfully implemented a new distribution model aligned with BPI’s customer and channel strategy. This feat has strengthened partner engagement and consequently increased the sales force productivity.

Prior to her appointment, she held the role of head of Partnership Distribution Sales Channels at BPI AIA since 2014. Bringing in more than a decade of rich experience in sales, Custodia has a proven track record of driving impactful change in the company. In her previous role, she led a team of over 1,500 employees from the In-Branch Corporate Sales, Direct Sales, Private Banking, and Telesales teams.

Custodia previously led the distribution channels to shift from physical to hybrid interaction at the height of the pandemic. The shift helped curb the pandemic’s impact and achieve faster recovery while staying true to the BPI AIA mission of making insurance easy to get and easy to have for every Filipino.

BPI AIA is a joint venture between AIA Philippines (formerly AIA Philam Life) and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).