IC ramps up microinsurance, Islamic finance programs

MANILA, Philippines — With insurance penetration still below target, the Insurance Commission (IC) is turning to stronger microinsurance and Islamic finance initiatives to expand coverage.

Latest data showed that insurance penetration, or premiums as a share of gross domestic product, stood at 1.78 percent in 2025.

READ: Insurance sector posts jump in premiums, profits in 2025

While this improved from 1.67 percent a year earlier, it remained below the IC’s 2-percent goal and continued to lag behind many regional peers.

IC Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado told reporters last Friday that the regulator had recently approved six new takaful products from four companies as part of efforts to raise penetration.

Takaful is a form of Islamic insurance based on Shariah principles, where members contribute to a shared fund that provides assistance to those who suffer loss or damage.

Among the newly approved providers is Pru Life UK, which received clearance for PruTerm Lindungi, a renewable family protection plan that provides death coverage up to age 60.

Etiqa Philippines, meanwhile, was approved for two personal accident products: Individual Takaful and Group Takaful.

CARD Mutual Benefit Association secured approval for four takaful products.

READ: Takaful takes root in the Philippines 

These include Financing Takaful, which covers financial obligations in cases of death, total and permanent disability, and motor vehicular accident hospitalization (MVAH), and Golden Takaful, a life microinsurance product that provides death benefits.

The group was also cleared to offer Basic Takaful Extension, a single-pay whole life product that provides death coverage, and Family Takaful, a microinsurance plan covering death, accidental death, total and permanent disability, and MVAH.

Stronghold Insurance is the last company licensed to offer takaful but has yet to secure approval for any products.

Regalado also said that the commission was also intensifying its focus on microinsurance, which is designed to provide affordable risk protection for low-income Filipinos.

“We are discussing all the other ways we can offer that. I’m telling them (life insurers) to try and see how we can have institutional programs so we can offer microinsurance,” Regalado said on the sidelines of a Philippine Life Insurance Association event.

“If you look at it per capita, the coverage of microinsurance is big. That’s why microinsurance is our priority to cover financial inclusion because that’s the most effective,” he added.

Regalado likened microinsurance to government assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, saying both are immediately available when disasters strike. INQ