THE Philippine insurance industry posted growth of 18 percent in terms of premiums as of end-September 2018, with all the sectors registering increases for the period, the Insurance Commission (IC) said.
The IC reported on Tuesday that the life, nonlife, as well as the mutual benefit association (MBAs) all saw expansions for the period, helping the local insurance industry post total premiums of P218.91 billion by the end of the third quarter, or 18 percent higher than the P185.51 billion in the same period in 2017.
Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said the life insurance sector posted premiums of P174.15 billion, which accounts for 79.55 percent of the premiums collected by the industry. This is 20.4 percent higher than the P144.63 billion recorded in 2017.
Broken down, the life insurance sector collected P130.14 billion in premiums from variable life insurance products and P44.02 billion from traditional life insurance products.
“First-year, single and renewal premiums of variable life insurance products posted double-digit increases of 20.72 percent, 21.27 percent and 29.52 percent, respectively,” Funa said.
For the nonlife insurance industry, the net premiums also increased by 7.34 percent to P36.83 billion compared to the P34.31 billion as of end September 2017.
Consistent with the trend in past reporting periods, the motor car insurance business comprised more than half of the total net premiums written with a 51.39-percent share, followed by fire insurance business with 13 percent and accident insurance business with a 9.87-percent share.
The reported contributions or premiums of MBAs rose to P7.93 billion, up by 21.20 percent from P6.54 billion during the same period last year, as three MBA companies posted significant increases in their contributions accounting for 77.09 percent of the total,
according to Funa.
Total assets of the insurance industry further rose to P1.55 trillion as of the end of third quarter this year, from P1.54 trillion during the same period in 2017.
“The insurance density, which was P1,768.49 as of end of September last year, has increased by 16.12 percent to P2,053.58 per capita. Insurance penetration likewise increased by 0.12 percentage points to 1.76 percent as of the end of third quarter this year, from 1.64 percent during the same period last year.” he added.
Insurance density is defined as the ratio of premium to the total population. Insurance penetration, on the other hand, is measured as the ratio of premiums to the country’s gross domestic product.
“The life insurance coverage provided by private insurers likewise rose from 45.69 percent as of end September 2017 to 56.63 percent during the same period this year, which is equivalent to an increase of 10.94 percentage points,” he said.
1 comment
This is Great News