Two foreign-led insurers are set to enter the Philippine market, the Insurance Commission (IC) announced.
Without naming names, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said they are now processing the applications of the two new entrants coming from a Southeast Asian conglomerate.
“We will announce it in the coming days,” Funa told reporters on the sidelines of the IC anniversary. “The licenses are now being processed already."
According to Funa, the incoming insurance companies with single parent are both life and non-life players.
Asked if these two insurance firms can meet the new capital requirement of P1.3 billion, Funa said “that’s the target, they can invest to comply with P1.3 billion.”
“They can well afford. These investors can well afford,” he added.
On Friday, April 1, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the scheduled increase in the capital requirement for industry players will proceed as planned to protect policyholders.
Dominguez explained that stronger capitalization for insurance companies is very important "because it is really for the protection of the public.”
Funa supported the Dominguez’s assertion, saying a higher capitalization is usually beneficial to a company.
"The higher the capitalization is, the farther it is from any financial threat," he said, adding that more than half are already compliant with the capitalization, but there is still a smaller portion that still has to comply.
Meanwhile, Dominguez said the impressive growth of the insurance industry in 2021 mirrors the efficiency and swift action of the IC in maximizing the use of digital tools and other measures to ensure the resilience of this sector amid the pandemic.
“By effectively discharging its role as regulator, the Commission ensured the protection of the consumers and the reliability of insurance coverage. By ensuring best practices, the credibility of the industry remains very, very high,” Dominguez said.
“In turn, a credible insurance industry encourages more people to avail themselves of financial protection. That is important to strengthening our community’s resilience in the face of so much uncertainty,” he added.
Under Funa’s leadership, Dominguez said the IC was able to optimize the power of digital technology so that it could provide the necessary support to enable industry stakeholders to operate as effectively as possible for the Filipino people.
Amid the mobility restrictions imposed during the pandemic, all insurance companies were able to digitally submit their reportorial requirements through the IC’s Rating Online Submission System.