Total premium of the insurance industry grew 18 percent to P218.91 billion as of the end of third quarter from P185.51 billion a year ago, as the insurance penetration rate improved to 1.76 percent, the highest in five years.
Insurance commissioner Dennis Funa said in a statement Tuesday that all sectors of the insurance industry”•life insurance, non-life insurance and mutual benefit organizations”• registered positive growth in terms of premiums collected.
The life insurance sector reported P174.15 billion in total premiums which accounted for 79.55 percent of the premiums collected by the industry.
Broken down, the life insurance sector collected P130.14 billion in premiums from variable life insurance products and P44.02 billion from traditional life insurance products.
Funa noted the significant increase in all premium types of variable life insurance products.
“First year, single and renewal premiums of variable life insurance products posted double-digit increase of 20.72 percent, 21.27 percent and 29.52 percent, respectively,” he said.
The net premiums written of the non-life insurance sector increased 7.34 percent from P34.31 billion as of end September 2017 to P36.83 billion during the same period this year.
Consistent with the trend in the past reporting periods, motor car insurance business comprised more than half of the total net premiums written with 51.39 percent, followed by fire insurance business with 13 percent and accident insurance business with 9.87-percent share.
The reported contributions/premiums of MBAs increased to P7.93 billion, up by 21.20 percent from P6.54 billion in the same period last year.
Total assets of the insurance industry increased to P1.55 trillion as of the end of third quarter this year from P1.54 trillion last year.
Funa said other indicators also pointed toward positive growth.
“The insurance density which was P1,768.49 as of end of September last year has increased by 16.12 percent to P2,053.58 per capita. Insurance penetration likewise increase by 0.12 percentage point to 1.76 percent as of end of third quarter this year from 1.64 percent during the same period last year,” Funa said.
Insurance density is defined as the ratio of premium to the total population. Insurance penetration, on the other hand, is measured as the ratio of premiums to the country’s gross domestic product.
“The life insurance coverage provided by private insurers likewise rose from 45.69 percent as of end September 2017 to 56.63 percent during the same period this year which is equivalent to an increase of 10.94 percentage points,” he said.
