Malayan Insurance retains top spot

MANILA, Philippines - Malayan Insurance Co. has retained leadership of the country’s non-life insurance industry with P2.59 billion worth of net premiums at the end of 2010.

Total gross premiums reached P5.85 billion in the same period.

Malayan Insurance is a member of the Yuchengco Group of Companies, and one of the first insurers to introduce micro-insurance to the agriculture sector.

The leading non-life insurer provides protection to property, casualty, motorcar, accident and marine insurance, as well as issue surety bonds.

Its net premiums represents roughly a seventh of the total net premiums of the non-life insurance industry of P22.2 billion.

Malayan Insurance president Yvonne S. Yuchengco, however, said that they are aiming for a market share of 25 percent. “We want to reach a more dominant position or share in the non-life insurance market.”

The top 10 players in the industry already accounts for more than half of the top net premiums written last year.

The top 10 players are: Malayan Insurance, Prudential Guarantee and Assurance Inc. (P2.3 billion); BPI/MS Insurance Corp. (P1.4 billion); Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp. (P1.17 billion); Philippine Charter Insurance Corp. (P1 billion); Pioneer Insurance & Surety Corp. (P980 million); UCPB General Insurance Co. Inc. (P914 million); Standard Insurance Co. Inc. (P913 million); Federal Phoenix Assurance Co. Inc. (P859 million); and Chartis Philippine Insurance Inc. P766 million).

Latest data from the Insurance Commission (IC) indicate that the number of players in the non-life insurance sector fell from 87 in 2009 to 80 last year.

Data on the industry’s paid-up capital covering the period 2010 are still unavailable. In 2009, Malayan Insurance reflected the highest paid-up capital in the non-life sector with P845 million. The minimum paid-up capital required by regulators for 2009 is P100 million.