Insurance industry’s premium income up 37.5% in Q2 —IC

The country’s insurance industry saw a double-digit growth in its premium income in the second quarter of 2021, the Insurance Commission (IC) reported on Tuesday.

In a statement, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said the industry's total premium booked during the April to June period stood at P187.13 billion, up 37.50% from P136.10 billion year-on-year.

In particular, the life insurance sector saw a total premium income of P155.17 billion, up 43.70% from P107.98 billion in the same period in 2020.

Of the total premiums booked, the IC said 78.12% or P121.21 billion was contributed by variable life insurance premiums or life insurance with investment, while the remaining 21.88% or P33.95 billion came from traditional life insurance premiums.

“The remarkable increase can be attributed to the good performance of variable life insurance single premiums that posted a 159.82% increase year-on-year, from P21.54 billion in second quarter 2020 to P55.97 billion in second quarter 2021,” said Funa.

On the other hand, the non-life insurance sector's net premiums written (NPW) grew by 12.55% to P25.51 billion from P22.66 billion a year earlier.

“This increase is explained by increases in almost all lines of non-life insurance business, except for accident, which decreased by 1 percent, and Aviation, which contracted by a staggering 140.30 percent,” Funa said.

“The huge decline in NPW for Aviation is mainly due to the negative NPW of one company, i.e., the company’s cessions/retrocessions were greater than direct and assumed business,” he added.

The mutual benefit associations’ (MBA) premium income rose by 18.41% to P6.46 billion from P5.45 billion.

“The growth of the life and non-life insurers’ and MBAs’ aggregate premiums and contributions earned and their aggregate net income in the second quarter 2021 are indicative of economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Funa.

“Moreover, the year-on-year increase in benefits paid during the same quarter highlighted the responsiveness of our insurers and MBAs to the needs of the insuring public despite the challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic,” the IC chief said.—AOL, GMA News