The Insurance Commission (IC) reported on Thursday that the country’s microinsurance sector posted growth last year in terms of premium and number of individuals covered.
Based on preliminary data from quarterly reports submitted by insurance companies to the IC, the microinsurance sector posted total premium production of P8.14 billion, while the number of people covered also rose to 38.89 million for 2018.
“Based on the statistical data, we saw that the nonlife- and life-insurance sectors showed significant increases in terms of premium production and number of lives covered,” Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said. “This only proves that microinsurance in our country continues to grow and is an effective and affordable financial product for the protection of the properties and lives of our countrymen.”
Funa explained that the total premium production as of end-2018 is a 14.48-percent increase from the P7.11 billion total premium production of the sector in 2017.
Broken down, the nonlife sector posted a premium production of P998.97 million in 2018, up 25.78 percent from P794.19 million in 2017.
In terms of premiums produced in 2018, CARD Pioneer Microinsurance Inc. led the nonlife-insurance sector with a market share of 66.89 percent or P668.26 million. Pioneer Insurance & Surety Corp. followed with P194.31 million and Mercantile Insurance Co. Inc. with P94.55 million.
The life-insurance sector posted in 2018 a 6.61-percent increase in premiums produced of P2.58 billion from P2.42 billion in 2017.
Climbs Life and General
Insurance Cooperative ranked first in terms of premium production in the
life-insurance sector with P1.34 billion, followed by Pioneer Life Inc. with
P676.97 million and United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. with
P189.17 million.
Furthermore, the mutual benefit associations (MBAs) sector posted a P4.56-billion contribution for 2018, which saw an increase of 16.92 percent from the P3.90 billion contributed in 2017.
CARD Mutual Benefit Association Inc. remains to be the leader in the MBA sector with a market share of P3.79 billion or 83.06 percent of the P4.56 billion total contributions made by all the members of the MBAs.
Tulay sa Pag-unlad Mutual Benefit Association Inc. ranked second with a recorded contribution of P258.96 million, followed by Alalay sa Kaunlaran Mutual Benefit Association Inc. with P69.97 million.
Funa also pointed out that the microinsurance sector likewise posted an increase in the number of individuals covered for the year.
“As of end of 2018, the number of individuals covered by some form of microinsurance protection increased by 18.77 percent from the 32.74 million in 2017,” he said.
The life-insurance sector posted the highest increase in the number of individuals covered by microinsurance, growing to 11.85 million as of end-2018 and increasing by 30.21 percent from the 9.10 million individuals covered in 2017.
The MBAs covered a total of 22.75 million individuals as of end 2018, up by 17.69 percent from 19.33 million in 2017.
Meanwhile, the nonlife-insurance sector posted a slight decrease of 0.46 percent in individuals covered to 4.29 million as of end 2018 from the 4.31 million individuals covered in 2017.