MICROINSURANCE PREMIUMS collected by insurance firms from policies grew by 17.35% year on year in 2023, driven mainly by mutual benefit associations (MBAs).

Total premiums collected under microinsurance policies amounted to P13.54 billion in 2023, up from P11.53 billion in 2022, the Insurance Commission (IC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Broken down, MBAs collected P7.48 billion in microinsurance premiums last year, up by 10.75% year on year from P6.75 billion. This was 55.26% of the total.

Meanwhile, life insurance companies collected P3.66 billion in 2023, increasing by 14.4% from P3.2 billion a year prior. This made up 27.05% of the total microinsurance premiums collected.

Lastly, nonlife insurance companies’ microinsurance premium collections jumped by 51.51% to P2.39 billion from P1.58 billion. This comprised 17.69% of the total.

The number of Filipino lives insured under microinsurance policies reached 56.62 million last year.

MBAs insured the highest number of lives at 28.62 million, making up 50.54% of the total.

This was followed by the life insurance sector at 15.64 million or 27.62% of the total, while nonlife insurers covered 12.37 million or 21.84%.

“Microinsurance products offers financial protection to the low-income earners to hedge against various risk such as death, injury, and damage to livelihood or property. Its premiums collection can be purchased for not more than 7.5% of the minimum wage in Metro Manila,” the IC said. — AMCS

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