Metlife Turkey managed to raise its total fund size up to 1 billion TL, including state subsidy funds, during the first quarter of 2016. On the other hand, premiums underwritten in life and personal accident insurance lines increased by 41 percent and reached 110 million TL; while Metlife preserved its leadership position in personal accident insurance with a market share of 38 percent among all pension and life companies.

Deniz Yurtseven, General Manager of Metlife, gave a statement about the successful performance of the company: "MetLife Turkey is proud and pleased to continue enhancing its success rate during the first quarter of 2016, despite the developments that occurred across the world and also in the surrounding geographies and that imposed negative economic impacts on our country during 2015."

Stating that Individual Pension System (BES) attracted a great deal of attention thanks to state subsidy system, Deniz Yurtseven said that it exerted positive influence on fund sizes; and added: "Gaining a significant momentum in a short period of time in Turkey, BES has showed a striking performance in recent years, especially due to the state subsidy funds. Individual Pension System (BES) closed 2015 with approximately 6 million participants and a fund size of 48 billion TL; driven by the state subsidy system that provides 25 percent fund support since 2013. System's rapid growth reflected positively on our results as Metlife Turkey, and we managed to raise our fund size over 1 billion TL during the first quarter of 2016, including state subsidy funds.

Considering this growth trend in the market, I believe that we will reach our 2023 target with 14-15 million participants and a fund size of approximately 200 billion TL. When severance payment funds begins to be managed by pension companies and automatic participation system becomes effective, we think we will be able to raise this estimation up to the range of 250 - 400 billion TL."

Yurtseven stated that automatic participation in Individual Pension System will have a positive impact on the market. He added that corporate solutions for employee benefit products drew great interest, helping MetLife Turkey add strong corporate customers in its portfolio over the last year. He said MetLife Turkey aimed to develop their range of products with innovative products and services to be offered to companies in 2016.