DoF urges insurance firms to increase client base

The head of the Department of Finance urged insurance companies to increase their client base as the country continues to improve its economic standing. “[T]he Philippines right now is the darling of investors in the region, for many reasons, and our external position is very good," said Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima at the anniversary celebration of the Insurance Commission. However, "There is a lot of room for improvement,” he said about the insurance industry's penetration rate, which currently stands at a mere 18.29 percent of the population. "We have a rising middle class, but the very important factor is the demography's in the sweet spot," Purisima said, noting that the bulk of Filipinos will be within the working age range of 15 to 60 by 2015. "That means you have a lot of potential clients,” he told industry players. “A lot of them will have insurance requirements, so you have the market opportunities.” Purisima said the insurance industry's assets as of September 2012 amounted to P655.2 billion, an 11-percent improvement year-on-year, but still only 10 percent of the Philippines' total financial industry. "The insurance industry should not operate in a vacuum. It should realize that it is one of the main tools for savings mobilization in [the] economy of a country," he said. — BM, GMA News