The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company has bought a 51 per cent stake in the Bank of the Philippine Islands' life insurance arm Ayala Life Assurance, part of a series of moves involving bancassurance and wealth management.

The deal comes alongside a strategic bancassurance joint venture between the two companies, which allows Philamlife to offer bancassurance products exclusively to BPI's wide customer base.

"This partnership is a direct result of our strategy to focus on the core life insurance and wealth management business," Philamlife president and chief executive officer Trevor Bull said in a statement.

BPI president and chief executive officer Aurelio Montinola III also responded positively to the agreement, saying: "We believe that there are significant cross selling opportunities on both sides. We feel that in the same way that Philamlife will have access to our customer base, BPI will have reciprocal access to Philamlife's customers for banking products."