Insurance premiums balloon 42% to P81.7 B

MANILA, Philippines - Total premium income of the country’s insurance industry has grown 42.01 percent, or from P81.7 billion in the first semester of 2014 to P116.1 billion this year.

In 2014, total premium income was P188.9 billion, lower than the record year of 2013 with premiums hitting P191.1 billion.

The life insurance sector reported an even stronger 49.4 percent growth rate in the period in review, or from P66.1 billion in 2014 to P98.8 billion this year.

A 13.31-percent increase was experienced by the non-life insurers to P16.8 billion premiums earned in the first six months of 2015 from the P14.8 billion in the same period last year.

Total assets of the industry reached a record P1.07 trillion in end of June, expanding by 12.8 percent from the P951 billion last year.

Net income rose to P10.8 billion in the first semester of 2015, 32.7 percent higher than the P8.1 billion in the same period last year.

Total networth and paid-up capital both grew by single digits, although Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc of the Insurance Commission (IC) expects it to dramatically increase as insurers’ are required to increase their paid-up capital from the present P350 million to P550 million.

According to the IC, the industry managed to invest P929 billion, mainly in fixed income and government securities (GS), although a substantial amount found its way into real estate, loan syndicates, and other elements of the country’s capital markets.

Benefits paid to policyholders reached P36.9 billion, up 11.6 percent from the P33 billion last year.

Of the total investments made, the life segment accounted to P867.7 billion.

The life insurers reported assets worth P915 billion, while total paid-up capital reached P14.8 billion.

Meanwhile, the non-life insurers continued to suffer from the huge tax burden in policies, accounting for over 25 percent of premiums paid by the insuring public.

Assets, in fact, fell to P158.3 billion this year from the P159 billion in the same period last year.

Another disturbing data from the IC shows that investments fell by 4.48 percent to P62 billion.

Total losses incurred (due to pay-outs to claims) reached P7 billion, up 17.89 percent from the P5.9 billion the year before.

At the end of 2014, there were 31 life insurers, 71 non-life, and one re-insurer for a total of 103 players.