Affordable products to drive insurance industry growth
The local insurance industry is confident that it can sustain its growth momentum in the final quarter of the year, as it ramps up the offering of smaller but more affordable protection plans to attract uninsured Filipinos.
“We don’t expect any major deviation from the trajectory for the remainder of the year,” Michael Rellosa, executive director of Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association, an industry group, said in an interview.
“The industry is working hard to address the protection gap through an emphasis on micro insurance or affordable insurance in smaller packages.
Latest data from the Insurance Commission showed that the insurance industry had recorded a 9.38-percent bottom line growth in the third quarter to P38.28 billion, as higher premium collection by both life and non-life insurance firms offset the lackluster performance of mutual benefit associations (MBAs).
Broken down, life insurance companies netted P28.79 billion, up 10.32 percent year-on-year. These firms collected total premiums amounting to P229.89 billion, P46.57 billion of which was generated from new policies sold during the period, up 32.72 percent.
Performance by segment
Earnings of non-life insurance firms, meanwhile, jumped 14.99 percent to P5.48 billion on the back of 15.56-percent surge in total net premiums to P48.21 billion as of the third quarter.
That performance picked up the slack from lower profits of the MBAs, which sagged 3.05 percent to P4.01 billion in the third quarter after total underwriting expenses significantly bloated year-on-year by 32.72 percent to P9.64 billion.
Nevertheless, figures showed the MBAs had registered total contributions amounting to P11.5 billion, up 7.43 percent.
“The post-pandemic rebound is probably attributable to a more acute realization of the various risks that we face and a renewed recognition of the value of insurance,” Rellosa said of the industry’s performance last quarter.
Overall, the insurance sector’s healthy financial performance helped it grow its total assets and net worth by almost 10 percent year-on-year to P2.23 trillion and P450.15 billion, respectively —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral INQ
