The microinsurance industry in the Philippines saw net premiums written surge by 20% to PHP5.4 billion (US$107.4 million) in 2016 from PHP4.5 billion in 2015, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa has revealed. He said in a statement that from 2012 to 2016, the average year-on-year increase in net premiums in microinsurance was 16%. Mutual benefit associations (MBAs) accounted for 54% of the total premium income of the microinsurance sector to the amount of PHP2.90 billion last year, followed by the life sector with a 35% market share (PHP1.88 billion) and the non-life sector with 11% of the market share (PHP631 million). The number of individuals with microinsurance cover stood at 28.4 million at the end of 2016. 61% of the total lives covered by microinsurance were the members and dependents of microinsurance MBAs. The life insurance sector covered 8.59 million lives with microinsurance products or 30% of the total number of insured lives while the non-life sector accounted for 2.54 million or 9% of the total lives covered by microinsurance. Mr Funa said that the MBA sector remains the leader in the microinsurance industry in terms of the number of lives covered and premium production. He added that private insurers are now eyeing the sector to gain from sales of microinsurance products.
Filipinos are taking out micro - insurance at a rapid pace , boosting sales by a fifth last year to PHP5.4bn ( $ 107.4 m ) , according to the country 's Insurance Commissioner , Jose Funa . Mutual benefit associations accounted for more than half the total of sales , with a value of billion . More than 28 million people in the Philippines now have micro - insurance , he said , adding that private carriers were increasingly moving into the sector .