Non-life insurers' collection up 30%

Amidst the challenges brought about by the global economic recession, Cebu’s non-life insurance sector still manage to post 30 percent increase of collection for the previous fiscal year of 2008.

In an interview with Cebu Insurers Club Inc. outgoing president Andy Manatad, he said that compared to 2007, the sector’s collection still managed to grow because of the increase of compulsory requirement insurances.

These compulsory non-life insurances include: government insurance, Bureau of Custom insurance, DPWH insurance, LGUs and city government insurances, PNP-required insurance, banking loan insurance, real estate insurance or mortgage chattel insurance and the increase of compulsory third party liability (CTPL) insurance.

Manatad said that the coverage for CTPL has been increased as mandated by a recent law which also increased premiums.

However, he said that in the verge of the global crisis, their non-compulsory premiums have also slowdown because most policy holders have either decreased and reduced their coverage or stopped their coverage.

“But the slowdown was only a small percentage of the entire collection so it was not able to cover the big growth of our compulsory insurance collections,” said Manatad.

He said that the upward swing of government-led projects last year also contributed to their high compulsory insurance collections.

“The developments of Cebu for the last year indeed fuelled the growth of our sector so we gained a huge collection. If the government did not do all those projects, the sector would not have this big collection,” he explained.

He said that since last year there have been a lot of borrowers in banks for mortgage on housing and cars, their sector has greatly benefited because lenders are required to get insurance for every loan.

With the looming economic crisis, most economists have a grim outlook of some business sectors but Manatad is optimistic that their sector will not have a problem renewing or soliciting new businesses.

In fact for the first month of this year, their production has increased compared to last year.

“We have gotten several businesses this year. The business environment is still good for our sector because until now government projects are still on the rise and compulsory insurance is still imposed so we remain optimistic of the market,” said Manatad.

Compulsory premiums include: CTPL, marine passenger insurance, customs bond, DPWH surety bond and constructor’s all risk insurance including performance bond while non-compulsory premium include products such as: fire insurance, motor car comprehensive insurance, marine hull insurance, and marine cargo insurance, in-land marine insurance and personal accident insurance.

Manatad highlighted that last year, Cebu Insurers Club was also able to give out free coverage to accredited Kapisanan ng Broadcaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) members as well as gave bail bond surety to some members. — Rhia de Pablo