The insurance industry’s aggregate premium income rose by 12.81 percent year-on-year to P440.39 billion in 2024 from P390.39 billion in 2023, the Insurance Commission said.
In its report on Wednesday, the commission said the bulk of the total premiums came from life insurance policies.
The report is based on data the IC gathered from the latest unaudited quarterly reports on selected financial statistics submitted by life and non-life insurers and mutual benefit associations (MBAs).
The total premium income generated by the life insurance sector alone posted an increase of 13.56 percent to P352.02 billion from P309.99 billion in the same comparable period.
“Both variable and traditional life premiums grew by 12.21 percent and 16.17 percent, respectively. The increase can be attributed to the good performance shown by the single premiums of variable life insurance which reported a significant increase of 40.33 percent as of 2024,” Insurance Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado said in a statement.
“Of the total life premiums, 65.28 percent came from variable life insurance, while the remaining 34.72 percent came from traditional life insurance. Additionally, the New Business Annual Premium Equivalent saw a modest rise of 9.57 percent, from P61.59 billion as of 2023 to P67.49 billion as of 2024,” he added.
Meanwhile, the net premiums written (NPW) of the non-life sector also grew by 10.49 percent to P71.84 billion from P65.01 billion.
“The motor car line of business, which is the major contributor to total NPW per line of business with a 40.17 percent share, rose modestly by 6.28 percent during this reporting period, from P27.15 billion as of 2023 to P28.86 billion as of 2024,” Regalado said.
“All non-life insurance business lines saw growth as of the end of 2024, with the motor car line leading, followed by the fire insurance line, which contributed 16.64 percent of the NPW and saw a 12.44 percent increase from 2023,” he added.
Meanwhile, the commission said the total mutual benefit premiums of mutual benefit associations went up 7.49 percent year-on-year. It did not cite the actual figures.
The IC also reported that insurance penetration, or the ratio of insurance premiums to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), increased from 1.61 percent in 2023 to 1.67 percent last year.
“This is explained by the faster growth of the insurance premiums vis-à-vis the 8.84 percent growth in the GDP (at current prices), which underscores stronger expansion within the insurance and MBA sectors as of 2024,” Regalado said.
Insurance density, on the other hand, which represents the amount of premium per capita or average spending of each individual on insurance, increased by 12.58 percent to P3,892.77 in 2024 from P3,457.84 a year earlier. Insurance premiums last year outpaced the 0.2 percent year-on-year population growth, the commission said.
The aggregate net income of the industry increased by 15.88 percent to P56.29 billion from P48.58 billion.
On the other hand, the insurance benefits paid went up by 18.97 percent to P160.33 billion from P134.76 billion.
The insurers’ and MBAs’ investments also performed well year-on-year, the IC said.
Aggregate invested assets grew by 7.23 percent to P2.20 trillion from P2.05 trillion. Total assets increased by 6.4 percent to P2.46 trillion from P2.31 trillion.
The 2024 figures were culled from the required submissions of 128 out of 137 licensed insurers and MBAs, the IC said.
