The various insurers should have no trouble selling at least P200 billion worth of policies this year as targeted, particularly the nonlife companies, the National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines (PhilNaRe) said.
PhilNaRe President and CEO Augusto Hidalgo said the sales targets for both life and nonlife insurers have proven basically within expectations as households and businesses sought and obtained financial risk protection for lives and property.
“We’re on track. We’re seeing positive results from nonlife insurance. The life insurance will likely stay flat. We have a very supportive Insurance Commission. They are really helping drive the industry’s stability,” Hidalgo told the BusinessMirror.
He also said the amended Insurance Code of the Philippines should help usher changes that strengthen the financial solvency of insurance companies with the adoption of another round of risk-based capital measures, or RBC 2, in 2016.
Having already benefited from the growing economy, the Philippine insurance industry reported a 12.02-percent growth in total net income amounting to P16.41 billion in 2014.
This translated to a 192.12-percent increase from P822 million in 2013 to P2.4 billion last year.
In 2014 the nonlife industry scored a robust 17.84-percent growth in gross written premium income equivalent to P64 billion, due mainly to the continuing favorable economic climate and absence of significant natural catastrophe.
On the other hand, the life industry’s gross premiums contracted due to the decline in the single premium variable income which managed a mere 1.3-percent increase of P14 billion from P13.83 billion in 2013.
This clearly disrupted the combined total premiums written for both nonlife and life insurance sectors amounting to P188.96 billion in 2014, which was 4.3 percent lower than 2013’s performance of P198.13 billion. Insurance industry’s assets strengthened to P1.016 trillion from P891.8 billion in 2013.
Total paid-up capital also grew by 6.94 percent to P39.92 billion from P37.3 billion, while investments increased 8.64 percent to P863.28 billion of which half are in government securities.