Insurance firms book growth in net premiums

THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY saw growth in terms of premiums collected as of September, boosted by the life sector’s performance.

Data from reports submitted by life and nonlife insurers as well as mutual benefit associations (MBA) to the Insurance Commission (IC) showed the industry’s total premiums as of end-September rose 18% to P218.91 billion from the P185.51 billion tallied in the same period last year.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said all sectors of the insurance industry posted positive growth during the period.

Broken down, life insurers reported P174.15 billion in total premiums at end-September, 20.4% higher than the P144.63 billion logged a year ago. This accounts for 79.55% of the premiums collected by the industry.

Particularly, the life insurance sector collected P130.14 billion in premiums from variable life insurance products, higher than the P104.89 billion posted a year ago.

Mr. Funa saw “significant” growth in all types of variable life insurance premiums, with first year, single and renewal premiums jumping 20.72%, 21.27% and 29.52%, respectively.

On the other hand, traditional life insurance products posted P44.02 billion in premiums in the period.

Meanwhile, net premiums written by nonlife insurers also increased by 7.34% to P36.83 billion from last year’s P34.31 billion.

Consistent with the trend in the past reporting periods, car insurance business made up more than half of the total net premiums written with 51.39%. This was followed by fire insurance (13%) and accident insurance (9.87%).

On the other hand, contributions or premiums posted by MBAs grew 21.2% to P7.93 billion from the P6.54 billion tallied last year.

Overall, the industry’s total assets reached P1.55 trillion as of September, a tad higher than last year’s P1.54 trillion.

Mr. Funa noted that other indicators “consistently point toward positive growth.”

Insurance density — or the ratio of premiums to the total population — grew 16.12% year on year to P2,053.58 from P1,768.49.

On the other hand, insurance penetration, or the ratio of premiums to the country’s gross domestic product, climbed 1.12 percentage points to 1.76% in September from last year’s 1.64%. •