Non-life insurers post 9% premium growth in 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Non-life insurance firms registered growth in premiums earned, benefits paid and net risks written year-on-year in 2019, the Insurance Commission (IC) said yesterday.

IC Commissioner Dennis Funa said the submission deadline of the annual statements of the non-life insurance firms last year had been moved numerous times because of pandemic restrictions.

“Hence, we are only seeing these pre-pandemic statistics now,” he said.

Total premiums earned by the non-life insurance industry rose by 8.82 percent to P56.52 billion in 2019 from P51.94 billion in 2018.

Total benefits paid by the industry likewise increased by 21 percent to P27.23 billion in 2019 from P22.61 billion in 2018.

Meanwhile, the industry’s aggregate net risks written jumped by 230 percent to P234.79 trillion in 2019 from P70.94 trillion in 2018.

Premiums earned from motor car insurance, making up 49 percent of total premiums earned in 2019, grew to P27.59 billion in 2019 from 26.12 billion in 2018.

Those earned from insurance covering fire and allied perils, which constituted 15 percent of total premiums earned in 2019, grew to P8.48 billion in 2019 from P7.01 billion in 2018.

Premiums earned from casualty insurance, which constituted 24.86 percent of total premiums earned in 2019, also increased year-on-year to P14.05 billion in 2019 from P12.75 billion in 2018.

Suretyship contracts earned the industry P4.18 billion in premiums in 2019, 7.4 percent of total premiums earned for said year, against P4.05 billion in 2018.

Premiums earned from marine insurance, which constituted four percent of total premiums earned in 2019, also grew 10.45 percent year-on-year, from P2.01 billion in 2018 to P2.22 billion in 2019.

Net risks written for motor car insurance policies, which constituted 22.85 percent of total net risks written for 2019, grew by a staggering 1,025.87 percent from P4.77 trillion in 2018 to P53.65 trillion in 2019.

This is followed by the 340.63 percent increase in net risks written for casualty insurance in 2019, which constitutes 35.79 percent of the total net risks written from P19.07 trillion in 2018 to P84.04 trillion in 2019.