Insurance industry poised to post highest premium income in 2015

The country’s insurance industry is poised to exceed its highest level premium income in history this year, the Insurance Commission said.

At the Philippine Life Insurance Association (PLIA) 65th anniversary Tuesday night, Insurance Commissioner Emmuanuel F. Dooc, said the industry’s total premium income may reach R240 billion to R250 billion this year.

Dooc’s new projection is well above the commission’s earlier forecast of R200 billion.

“We will hit well over R200 billion this year, in fact, my prediction is that we’re poised to break a premium income of R240 billion to R250 billion this year,” Dooc said. “It’s much better than our banner year in 2013 when we hit about R200 billion.”

“People now realize the need for insurance cover. This time life is showing more robust growth than non-life,” he added.

In 2013, total premium income hit R198.1 billion, the highest level for the country’s insurance industry.

But in 2014, the insurance industry total premium income fell by 5 percent to R188 billion due to lower sales performance by the life insurance sector.

The Philippine life insurers experienced a huge drop in single pay premium income last year and slightly anemic first year premiums.

Meanwhile, Dooc expects the industry’s growth will remain strong until the end of his term in 2019.

“My fearless forecast is that by the time I leave the commission — my tenure is until December 2019 — we will be hitting total premium of half a trillion, that is just based on a 20 percent to 25 percent compounded annual growth,” Dooc said.

“By 2016, we may be at R300 billion, and we have three years to go, so it's achievable to get half a trillion,” he added.

Earlier, the commission reported that the insurance industry grew 45.5 percent in the first three-months of the year to R56.3 billon from R38.68 billion in the same period last year.

Dooc had said he expected the robust growth trend in first quarter will continue for the year of the year.