Since 2015, Sergio Nunes has been leading APRIL Portugal’s development in the highly competitive Mortgage Credit Protection Insurance market (MCPI). In this interview, he shares the company’s growth drivers, recent achievements and ambitions under the Group’s Spring27 strategic plan.
You’ve been head of APRIL Portugal since 2015. Can you tell us about your entity and its business model?
“APRIL operates in Portugal as a master broker and is particularly recognised for its expertise in Mortgage Credit Protection Insurance (MCPI). Growth is driven through three distribution channels: independent brokers, direct and affinity partnerships. Through brokers and direct, we mainly distribute MCPI, along with other personal lines such as personal accident and standalone life insurance. While brokers remain our core channel, affinities are also a key driver of performance and reflects our ability to design tailored solutions aligned with our clients’ needs. The direct channel, our most recent strategic initiative, is showing encouraging results and steady progress.”
What are your key success factors?
“Our performance relies on several key pillars :
-Developing products tailored to client needs while ensuring strong technical and financial performance for our risk carriers and sustainable profitability through profit-sharing agreements.
-Investing in commercially driven IT systems to enhance both client and broker experience while improving team productivity. Today, more than 50% of our policies are issued without back-office intervention.
-Building strong and transparent relationships with our risk carriers, based on technical expertise and consistent performance.
-Maintaining close relationships with our broker network and affinity partners.”
How does APRIL position itself in the Portuguese insurance market??
“APRIL enjoys strong recognition in the MCPI open market (non-bancassurance). Our offer has consistently been acknowledged as one of the best in the market by consumer protection associations. The MCPI market is highly competitive, with an increasing number of players pursuing aggressive strategies. Our size allows us to optimise structural costs while maintaining the agility needed to adapt processes to our distributors and business partners. APRIL is a people-centred company. One of our guiding principle is what we call “the ability to engage in dialogue.” Our teams build strong and lasting relationships with our intermediary network. As a relatively small organisation, we can stay close to our brokers, understand their needs and adapt our processes and products to market expectations.”
Is there a key achievement for 2025 that you would like to mention?
“In 2025, we launched a new partnership with MNCAP, with the support of our Head Office. This initiative significantly strengthened our offering, improving competitiveness among younger customers, enhancing commission structures and reducing concentration risk. The project also demonstrates our teams’ ability to deliver complex cross-functional initiatives, involving IT, legal, technical and financial dimensions, with a successful go-live delivered on schedule.”
What are your ambitions under the Spring27 strategic plan?
“Our ambitions under Spring27 are based on continuous improvement, building on what we have already achieved while ensuring steady progress. First, we aim to continue strengthening our offering, refining our products and exploring new solutions that address evolving market needs. Market agility is another key priority. We want to accelerate time-to-market for new products, improve client interactions and increase APRIL’s brand awareness in Portugal. The evolution of IT systems and automation also plays a central role. We are evaluating investment in AI-driven lead conversion, assessing automated processes to convert leads more efficiently. At the same time, we are improving distributor prospecting and onboarding, using automated processes that require minimal additional headcount. Finally, productivity remains a core objective. Our goal is to manage a larger client portfolio while maintaining our current team size, ensuring sustainable growth supported by technology and operational efficiency.
