IC: New foreign life insurer coming to PH
Insurance Commission
MANILA, Philippines—A new foreign-led life insurer will enter the Philippine market this year, reflecting not only recovery but also greater interest in insurance amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said on Thursday (March 17).
At the launch of the maiden Philippine life insurance advisors awards, Funa disclosed that the new player will be formally announced by the end of this month or next month. “It’s an investor from a foreign entity,” Funa said, but he declined to identify it.
“So you can see the interest of these foreign insurers in the Philippine market,” Funa said.
Funa said that as the COVID-19 pandemic padded the savings of some Filipinos who had been locked down in their homes for so long, many also realized the importance of insurance plans to protect themselves.
Citing the latest data of the regulator Insurance Commission (IC), Funa said insurance density—or average spending per capita of each Filipino on insurance products—rose to P3,400 in 2021 from P2,800 in 2020.
Funa added that insurance penetration—the share of premiums or sales generated by the industry to the economy or gross domestic product (GDP)—also inched up to 1.93 percent last year from 1.71 percent in 2020, despite the bigger base in 2021 as Philippine GDP recovered from its worst annual recession two years ago.
Total life and non-life premiums last year climbed to P374-billion from P308 billion in 2020, Funa said. Sales of the life insurance sector alone jumped to P310 billion in 2021 from 2020’s P247 billion.
As such, life insurers ended 2021 with a combined net income of P39 billion, up from P30 billion in 2020, Funa said.
“The future is very bright for the life insurance industry,” the IC chief said.
