Insurers post 47% growth in premiums

The country’s insurance sector posted a 47-percent jump in premium collection in 2013.

Based on preliminary estimates of the Insurance Commission, life and non-life insurance companies posted a combined premium collection of P210 billion last year, up from P143 billion in 2012.

Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc said the significant increase was attributed largely to the increasing number of Filipinos who appreciate the value of insurance in their lives.

He said that from only 14 percent of the population in 2009, the proportion of Filipinos who purchased life insurance products jumped to 24.25 percent in 2012.

The figure excludes people   who are covered solely by mandatory insurance policies provided by the state-owned Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Dooc said the insurance market penetration rate was expected to have increased further last year.

The increasing demand for insurance products is credited to the robust growth of the economy that resulted in rising incomes particularly among the middle class.

“People now have money to buy insurance, which usually is given a low priority in terms of spending because it is not considered a basic necessity,” Dooc said in a briefing last Friday.

The aggressive marketing  campaigns for micro-insurance products, which cater to low-income earners, also contributed to the rise in the market penetration rate for insurance products.

Dooc said that of the total life insurance policies sold during the year, about 23 percent were micro-insurance plans.

Unlike regular insurance, micro-insurance is much cheaper. Some of these cost only P100 each or even less. Insurance benefits from such policies can go as low as P5,000.

The Insurance Commission is pushing for the development of the micro-insurance industry. It believes that low-income households badly need protection against risks that could aggravate their financial conditions.

Dooc said the insurance industry was expected to grow further in 2014 as the expected sustainability of the robust economic growth posted in the past years would encourage more people to buy insurance policies.

He said the insurance industry’s total assets were expected to grow to P1 trillion this year from about P850 billion last year.