MANILA, Philippines—Insurers’ aggregate bottom line grew 29.4 percent year-on-year to P24.6 billion in the first half of 2021 because of improving economic conditions and more interest in insurance coverage amid a prolonged pandemic, the Insurance Commission (IC) said on Tuesday (Oct. 26).
In a statement, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said the combined net income of life and non-life insurers and mutual benefit associations (MBAs) as of end-June rose from P19.03 billion in2020.
The premiums they earned, a proxy for sales, climbed 37.5 percent to P187.1 billion during the first six months of 2021 from P136.1 billion in 2020.
Total investments also rose 12.1 percent year-on-year to P1.75 trillion, alongside the 10.4-percent increase in industry-wide assets to P1.98 trillion.
“The growth of the life and non-life insurers’ and MBAs’ aggregate premiums and contributions earned and their aggregate net income in the second quarter of 2021 are indicative of economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Funa said.
With COVID-19 still posing a threat to lives and livelihoods, the amount of benefits paid by insurers to clients jumped 46.7 percent to P64.9 billion from January to June compared to 2020’s P44.3 billion.
Funa said that “the year-on-year increase in benefits paid during the [second] quarter highlighted the responsiveness of our insurers and MBAs to the needs of the insuring public despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The IC said these latest figures on the industry’s end-June performance came from unaudited financial statistics submitted by 128 of the 135 licensed insurance players in the country.