Insurers’ premium income hits P145.7B

THE insurance industry saw premium income grow by 24.2 percent in the first half of the year with all sectors recording expansions, regulators reported on Wednesday.

The Insurance Commission said total premium income hit P145.67 billion in the first six months of 2018, up from P117.29 billion during the same period in 2017.

“All sectors of the insurance industry—the life insurance sector, non-life insurance sector, and mutual benefit associations—posted double-digit growth in terms of premium income at end-June this year,” Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said in a statement.

During the six-month period, the life sector grew premium income by 27.9 percent to P116.14 billion, which Funa attributed to an increase in the sales of variable life products.

Non-life premiums, meanwhile, increased by 10 percent to P24.44 billion on the back of a 14.8-percent increase in premiums collected from motor car insurance products, Funa added.

The mutual benefit associations (MBA) sector also reported total contributions of P5.18 billion, up by 20.6 percent year on year.

“The MBA sector recorded this increase due to the 27.03-percent or P529.3 million increase in the net members’ contribution of two MBAs,” Funa said.

The industry’s assets climbed by 3.6 percent to P1.54 trillion during the period .

Liabilities and net worth hit P1.22 trillion and P313.09 billion, respectively.

Funa claimed that the outlook for the industry “is very positive taking into account the all-time record year in 2017 and double-digit growth in first quarter of this year”.

This is despite “factors that may affect the outlook for the industry in the second half of this year [that]are largely linked to the health of the country’s economy.”

“With the continued upward trajectory in our statistics, we can say that we have achieved a lot, but there is more to be done,” he added.

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