About 48.2 million Filipinos now covered by microinsurance

MANILA, Philippines — About 48.22 million Filipinos are now covered by microinsurance policies as of end-March this year, the Insurance Commission (IC) said.

Citing the unaudited first quarter reports submitted by insurance companies, IC chief Dennis Funa said the estimated number of lives covered by microinsurance as of end-March increased by 28.89 percent from the 37.41 million recorded a year ago.

Funa said mutual benefit associations (MBA) remained the biggest market player in the microinsurance businesses, with 27.1 million Filipinos covered.

MBAs also generated P1.08 billion in microinsurance premiums, 54.5 percent of the P1.99 million total industry premium in the first quarter.

Funa, however, noted that the MBAs’ premium contributions declined by 10.06 percent year-on-year.

“Perhaps, this can be attributed to some MBAs that have stopped collecting contributions and gave extensions to their members in March 2020, which marked the onset of the national government’s imposition of strict community quarantine guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Funa said.

Meanwhile, the life insurance sector is estimated to have covered 13.35 million Filipinos with microinsurance 24.67 percent up from 10.71 million last year.

“The sector also registered a 6.54 percent increase in terms of microinsurance premium production from P608.35 million to P648.15 million,” Funa said.

The IC said the number of lives covered by the non-life insurance sector through microinsurance policies more than doubled to 7.78 million from 3.73 million last year.

From January to March, the sector posted a 16.12 percent growth in terms of microinsurance premium production to P255.23 million from P219.79 million.

The IC reported that the local insurance industry generated P78.15 billion in premium income in the first quarter, 10.53 percent up from the P70.71 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Funa said insurance density, which is the amount of premium per capita or average spending of each individual on insurance, posted a growth of 9.89 percent.

On the other hand, the IC reported that the industry’s aggregate net worth in the first quarter decreased by 7.03 percent to P345.27 billion from P371.39 billion in 2019.

Funa said the first quarter figures do not yet fully reflect the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the IC was hoping that the impact of the pandemic in the succeeding quarter was mitigated by the various COVID-19 related regulations issued by the commission.