The Insurance Commission (IC) has reported that the local insurance industry’s net income for the first quarter of the year amounted to P11.72 billion, up from the P8.042 billion posted in the same period for 2018.
Based on the unaudited quarterly reports submitted to the IC, the total net income reported by the life, nonlife and mutual benefit associations (MBAs) sector in January to March jumped by 46 percent with all three sectors posting increases.
The life insurance sector reported a net income of P9.08 billion for the three month period, showing an increase of 44 percent from the P6.31 billion in net income reported last year.
The increase can be attributed to the decreases in reserve, benefits payment, and other underwriting expenses, according to the IC.
Net income among nonlife insurers amounted to P1.04 billion, expanding by 121 percent from the P470 million reported last year, which can be attributed to huge increases in premiums earned, commissions earned and other underwriting income.
The MBA sector’s net surplus rose by 27 percent to P1.60 billion, from P1.26 billion for the same period.
Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa explained that “the increase in the net surplus of the MBA sector is due to the upsurge of the net surplus of four micro-MBAs and the incremental growth on the net surplus of all regular MBAs.”
Meanwhile, the total assets of the insurance industry stood at P1.68 trillion in the first three months of this year, up by 8 percent from the P1.55 trillion booked in the same period last year.
In terms of investments, the total investments of the insurance industry rose by 13 percent year-on-year to P1.50 trillion, from P1.32 trillion in the first quarter of 2018.
The total net worth of the insurance industry also increased by 20.17 percent to P371.38 billion as of the end of first quarter this year, from P309.04 billion during the same period in 2018.
But the insurance industry posted a slight decrease of 8 percent year-on-year in terms of premiums from P76.64 billion last year to P70.71 billion this year.
“While the nonlife insurance and MBA sectors posted increases in net premiums written and contribution, respectively, the life insurance sector posted a decrease in total premiums,” Funa said. “The decrease in the total premiums of the life sector can be attributed to the year-on-year 59-percent decrease in premiums collected from single premium variable life insurance products.”
Based on IC’s data, the country’s insurance penetration also decreased to 1.68 percent from 1.96 percent in the same period for 2018.
There are total of 133 life and nonlife insurance companies and MBAs operating in the country as of the first quarter of the year from 133 in the same period for last year.