THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY recorded higher premiums as of June, pushing up the country’s insurance penetration rate.
Total premiums paid for life and nonlife insurance products grew by 12.98% to P242.842 billion at end-June from P214.941 billion in the same period last year, the Insurance Commission (IC) said in a statement on Monday.
As a result, insurance penetration, or the ratio of insurance premiums to the gross domestic product, rose to 1.79% from 1.71% a year prior.
Insurance density, or the average spending of each individual on insurance, also increased by 12.07% to P2,137.32.
“This considerable increase was driven by a rise in total premiums that exceeded the population growth rate of 0.87%. The growth suggests a higher level of adoption and use of insurance services within the population as of the quarter,” the IC said.
Broken down, life insurers registered a 12.01% increase in premiums collected to P195.05 billion in the first semester from P174.14 billion a year prior.
Of this total, variable life premiums climbed by 15.47% to P130.7 billion, while traditional life premiums went up by 5.59% to P64.35 billion, the data showed.
Meanwhile, nonlife insurance companies’ net premiums written jumped by 20.48% year on year to P39.63 billion as of end-June from P32.89 billion.
For their part, mutual benefit associations’ total contributions went up by 3.09% to P8.16 billion from P7.91 billion.
The insurance industry’s combined net income increased by 3.62% to P28.78 billion in the first half, the IC added.
Benefits paid out by the sector also went up by 1.18% to P77.57 billion.
The industry’s total assets rose by 7.56% year on year to P2.54 trillion as of end-June. Invested assets stood at P2.26 trillion, up by 10.7% from the year-ago level.
Insurance companies’ combined net worth also grew by 8.7% to P493.76 billion from P454.24 billion.
Total paid-up capital and guaranty fund went up by 7.95% to P84.98 billion.
Meanwhile, the industry’s total liabilities grew by 7.29% to P2.05 trillion as of end-June from P1.91 trillion a year prior. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
