The local insurance industry grew 19.5 percent in the first quarter from a year ago in terms of premium income, the Insurance Commission said Wednesday.
Data from the commission showed the industry’s total premium income hit P57.035 billion in January to March, up from P47.725 billion registered in the same period in 2016.
The life insurance sector raked in premiums totaling P44.08 billion, up 14.2 percent from P38.60 billion in the previous year.
Commissioner Dennis Funa said in a statement the positive growth in the premium income of the life sector could be attributed to the increase in the premiums generated from the sale of variable life insurance products.
“While the premium income in traditional life insurance declined by 3.87 percent, the life insurance sector registered a 23.21-percent increase in premium income from the sale of variable life insurance products,” Funa said.
Non-life insurance sector also recorded a 19.4-percent increase in net premiums to P10.89 billion from P9.12 billion a year ago.
“One of the factors in the increase in net premiums written of the non-life sector is due to the increase in the premiums generated from the fire and motor business. The fire business contributes to almost half or 48.24 percent of the total net premiums written of the non-life insurance sector. On the other hand, the net premiums written from motor business comprises 18.01 percent of the total net premiums written,” Funa said.
Funa said he was confident that the stronger growth in the first quarter of this year could be sustained by the industry in the coming months.
Mutual benefit associations, meanwhile, contributed P2.06 million to the industry’s total premium income.
Total assets of insurance companies stood at P1.42 trillion as of end-March, up by 22.3 percent from P1.17 trillion in the same period in 2016.
Total investments also rose 21.4 percent to P1.24 trillion from P1.02 trillion on year.
“The life insurance sector’s total investment stood at P1.10 trillion, 40 percent of which or P4.42 billion were invested in government bonds while the non-life insurance sector’s total investment amounted to P74.65 billion, 39.08 percent or P29.17 billion of which were invested in government bonds,” Funa said.
Investments of the insurance industry are placed in private bonds stocks, real estate, mutual funds, unit investment trust fund, real estate investment trust and deposits in banks.
The insurance industry recorded an increase of 25.77 percent in net income for the period at P6.34 billion from P5.04 billion in the same period in 2016. The life sector posted an increment of 6.52 percent year-on-year to P4.81 billion from P4.52 billion.
The non-life sector, on the other hand, posted an 11.98-percent increase in net income in the first quarter from P518 million to P580 million.