Profit of insurance industry rises 21.88 percent in 1st nine months

The insurance industry’s profit grew 21.88 percent year-on-year to P27.86 billion in the first nine months on the back of strong sales in the life sector.

Citing preliminary data, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said the end-September industry net income increased from P22.85 billion in the same nine-month period last year.

“While the non-life insurance sector experienced a 20.87-percent decline in its total net income for the third quarter of 2017 from P3.49 billion to P2.76 billion, the life insurance sector showed a strong performance in the penultimate quarter of this year, with a total net income of P21.96 billion, up by 31.93 percent compared to the same period last year,” Funa said.

“The mutual benefit association (MBA) sector, on the other hand, posted an increase of 15.19 percent in its net surplus from P2.72 billion to P3.13 billion,” Funa added.

Funa attributed the increase in total industry net income to “the increase in underwriting and investment income of the life insurance sector.”

Total industry premiums as of September rose 9.41 percent to P185.51 billion from P169.56 billion a year ago.

The life insurance sector alone posted 8.08-percent growth in premiums to P144.63 billion from last year’s P133.85 billion.

“The total premiums from variable life insurance products rose by 8.74 percent from P96.46 billion to P104.89 billion. Although it experienced a 5.81-percent decrease in premium income from single premium variable life insurance products compared to last year, this was offset by the impressive increase in its first year and renewal premium,” Funa explained.

“The first year and renewal premium of variable life insurance products increased by 12.28 percent and 34.43 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, premiums from traditional life insurance products likewise showed a significant increase of 29.01 percent in single premium and 23.07 percent in first year premium compared to the previous year,” he added.

As for the non-life insurance sector, its total net premiums written grew 14 percent to P34.31 billion as of September from a year ago’s P30.1 billion.

“The non-life insurance sector demonstrated continued momentum in the third quarter of this year through the sale of fire and motor insurance products as more than half of the total net premiums written by the sector were generated from these products,” according to Funa.

The MBA sector’s end-September total contributions, meanwhile, jumped 16.59 percent to P6.54 billion from P5.61 billion last year.

As of September, total industry investments rose 15.1 percent year-on-year to P1.3 trillion; assets, up 16.28 percent year-on-year to P1.5 trillion; and net worth, up 19.23 percent to P320.4 billion. /jpv