Microinsurance premiums grow 30%

MANILA, Philippines — The total premiums and contributions generated by the microinsurance industry jumped 30 percent in the first nine months of last year on the back of the country’s sustained economic growth, the Insurance Commission reported over the weekend.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said premium payments and contributions reached P5.17 billion from January to September last year or P1.2 billion higher than the P3.97 billion recorded in the same period in 2016.

Funa said the mutual benefit associations (MBA) sector continues to take up more than half of the market share with premium contributions reaching P2.92 billion as of end-September.

This was 32.4 percent higher than the P2.2 billion recorded as of end-September 2016.

“The life and non-life insurance sectors likewise registered an increase in terms of premium generated from the sale of microinsurance products,” he said.

The life insurance sector recorded a total of P1.73 billion in terms of premiums generated, up 27.8 percent from the P1.36 billion recorded during the same period in 2016.

The premium production of the non-life sector, on the other hand, increased 25.8 percent to P520 million as of end-September 2017 from P410 million of the same comparable period in 2016.

“Outreach of microinsurance as measured by the number of individuals covered continues to expand by 21.7 percent,” he added.

As of end-September, the number of individuals covered by microinsurance products reached 32.03 million, from 26.33 million in the same period in 2016.

“Again, the MBA sector recorded the highest number of individuals covered with 17.85 million individuals and dependents covered or 55.7 percent of the total,” Funa said.

The non-life insurance sector recorded a substantial 67 percent increase in terms of number of insured covered to 5.18 million individuals from 3.11 million while the number of lives covered by the life insurance sector rose 18.7 percent to nine million from 7.58 million.

As of the end of the third quarter last year, there were 41 entities actively engaged in providing microinsurance products comprising of 21 MBAs, 11 life insurance companies and nine non-life insurance companies.