Insurance industry net income rose by 32.5% in first quarter

The insurance industry posted a hefty 32.5-percent year-on-year growth in net income during the first quarter, mainly on higher premium production, as well as the recovery of the bancassurance sector.

Citing preliminary data based on quarterly reports submitted by life and nonlife firms, Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc said on Monday that the industry’s net income jumped by almost a third to P5.232 billion at the end of March from the P3.948 billion reported a year ago.

Dooc said the stronger growth in the first quarter was attributed by industry players to the recovery in bancassurance activities.

The life sector saw its first quarter net income rise by 27.1 percent to P4.384 billion. The non-life sector, meanwhile, registered a faster 70.3-percent rise in net income to P847.2 million.

Also, combined premium production of life and non-life companies grew by a robust 45.5 percent to P56.289 billion in the first quarter, compared with the P38.679 billion in premiums seen during the first three months of last year.

“We hope this trend will continue for the rest of the year. If it does, we expect significant growth,” Dooc said.

The commissioner said this year could be a reverse of 2014’s slower premium production, which failed to exceed the nearly P200 billion posted in 2013.

“Since we performed very well in the first quarter, I think we are very much on target to achieve P200 billion in total premiums this year,” Dooc said.

The life sector’s total premiums grew by a hefty 55.8 percent to P48.093 billion at end-March, while nonlife firms’ total net premiums went up by 4.9 percent to P8.196 billion during the same three-month period.

The industry’s total assets remained steady at just over the trillion-peso mark at the end of the first quarter.

The higher asset base means that the domestic insurance industry has bigger resources and better capability to assume its liabilities.