Total premium collection of life insurance companies in the country recorded a 12.04 percent increase in the first quarter of the year, the Insurance Commission (IC) reported yesterday.
In a statement, the IC said the collected premium of life insurers amounted to P87.66 billion in the first three months of 2024 versus the P78.24 billion premium collection during the same period last year.
The IC said the higher premium collection could be attributed to the increase in collected premium from both variable unit life (VUL) insurance policies and traditional life insurance, which grew by 6.8 percent and 22.17 percent, respectively.
Premiums paid under VUL policies amounted to P55.06 billion, while those under traditional life insurance amounted to P32.6 billion.
The new business premium collection also improved by 7.99 percent to P16.71 billion from the P15.47 billion collected during the same period in 2023.
Total net income of the life insurance sector amounted to P9.65 billion, jumping by 48.52 percent from the P6.5 billion during the same period last year. Total benefit payments amounted to P31.21 billion, up 20.18 percent from its year ago level. The life insurance sector also registered an 8.91 percent growth in total assets, which amounted to P1.86 trillion as of the first quarter of 2024.
Meanwhile, the IC also reported that total net premiums written by non-life insurance companies amounted to P16.99 billion during the first quarter of 2024, higher by 6.98 percent from the P15.88 billion net premiums written during the same quarter in 2023.
Net premiums written refers to the premiums written minus premiums ceded to reinsurance companies. Net premiums written thus represents how much premiums were retained by the non-life insurance sector for assuming risk. The total premiums earned during the first three months of the year amounted to P15.78 billion, or a slight decline of 1.34 percent from a year ago.
Total gross premiums written increased by 7.76 percent to P28.2 billion.
The IC said the increase in net premiums written could be attributed to the improvement in premium collection from motor vehicle insurance and fire insurance, which grew by 10.87 percent and 9.13 percent, respectively.
Total losses incurred by the non-life insurance sector declined by 4.83 percent to P6.23 billion due to decrease in claims paid out during the first quarter of 2024, the IC said.
Total net income amounted to P2.52 billion, down 4.08 percent from P2.63 billion a year ago, which the insurance regulator said could be attributed to the slight drop in total premiums earned.
