Insurance sector grew ’24 profits by 16%
The insurance industry recorded fatter profits in 2024 on the back of higher premium collection that beat benefit payments.
Latest data from the Insurance Commission (IC) showed that the combined net income of life and nonlife insurers as well as mutual benefit associations (MBAs) had gone up by 15.87 percent to P56.29 billion last year. The figures were based on submissions from 128 out of 137 licensed insurers and MBAs in the country.
Such a bottom-line growth was backed by higher premiums collected from plan holders, which jumped by 12.81 percent to P440.39 billion.
That amount of premiums exceeded the cash outflows from benefit payments, which nevertheless grew by 18.97 percent to P160.33 billion during the year.
Data showed that insurance density—the average spending of each individual on protection plans—had climbed by 12.58 percent to P3,892.77 per head by the end of 2024, as premiums outpaced the 0.2-percent population growth.
The IC said premiums accounted for 1.67 percent of gross domestic product in 2024. That figure, also known as insurance penetration, was 0.06 percent higher than a year ago, which IC Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado took as a sign of “stronger expansion within the insurance and MBA sectors.”
“The increase can be attributed to the good performance shown by the single premiums of variable life insurance…,” he said.
Aggregated invested assets of insurers and MBAs grew by 7.23 percent to P2.2 trillion, giving the industry another source of revenue apart from premiums.
At the same time, total assets of the industry increased at an annualized rate of 6.43 percent to P2.46 trillion.
By sector, total premium income of life insurance firms went up by 13.56 percent to P352.02 billion. That brought the sector’s net income to P40.23 billion by the end of 2024, marking a 19.63-percent increase.
MBAs saw their combined net surplus surge by 23.24 percent to P7.16 billion.
Those results offset the 2.63-percent contraction in the profits of nonlife insurers, which netted P8.89 billion as the rise in total underwriting expenses outpaced the growth in underwriting income, the IC said.
