The Insurance Commission (IC) reported an 11.15-percent increase in premium income in the first six months to P117.29 billion, due to the strong performance of the life, nonlife and mutual benefit associations (MBAs).
According to Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa, momentum allowed the industry to post strong premium-income growth averaging 11.15 percent.
“Based on the unaudited financial statements submitted to the IC, the insurance industry reported total premium income of P117.29 billion for the first half of 2017, an increase of 11.15 percent from the P105.52 billion during the same period last year,” Funa said.
He said all the sectors posted positive growth in terms of premium income for the period, reverting the flat performance of the life-insurance industry in 2016.
It was recalled that in the first half of 2016, the insurance sector reported a 9.11-percent decline in premium income to P105.52 billion, from P116.11 billion in the same period in 2015.
“This year, however, the insurance industry posted positive growth in terms of premium generated as early as the first half of the year,” Funa said.
Life-insurance premium income expanded by 10.46 percent, totaling P90.79 billion from only P82.20 billion in the first half last year. The increase was traced to the sale of traditional and variable life-insurance products posting growth of 3.05 percent and 13.69 percent, respectively.
“The increase in premium generated from the sale of traditional life products was brought about by the remarkable increase in its single premium and first-year premium. For variable life-insurance, products, on the other hand, while there is a slight decrease in single premium, there were significant increases in its first year and renewal premia,” he said. The nonlife aggregate net premium written from January to June this year increased by 12.78 percent to P22.20 billion, from the P19.69 billion of the same comparable period last year.
“Similar to the performance in the first quarter this year, the nonlife insurance sector continues to post significant increases in terms of net premium written in the motor car and fire lines comprising the majority of the total net premium written,” Funa added.
The MBAs sector reported total contributions of P4.29 billion in the first six months, up 18.03 percent from P3.64 billion in 2016.
The insurance industry’s total assets expanded by 14.78 percent in the first half to P1.48 trillion, from P1.29 trillion last year. Total liabilities stood at P1.17 trillion as of end-June, or 13.86 percent higher than the P1.03 trillion in 2016.
The insurance industry’s total net worth stood P310.74 billion in the first six months this year, up 18.37 percent from P262.51 billion in 2016.
As consequence of increases in the paid-up capital of several companies, the insurance industry reported a 15.42-percent increase in total paid-up capital to P49.10 billion this year from the P42.55 billion as of end-June 2016.