Micro-insurance companies collected over P6.7 billion worth of premiums in the second quarter this year, surging by 22.7 percent from P5.5 billion in the same period last year.

Latest data released by the Insurance Commission (IC) showed that the number of lives insured under micro-insurance products correspondingly increased by 7.16 percent to 52 million  in April to June this year from 49.3 million insured lives a year ago.

Microinsurance is specifically targeted to help low-income households or those who have limited savings. It covers compensation for illness, accidents, and death.

Likewise, the number of lives insured by mutual benefit associations (MBAs) also increased to 27.81 million from 27.53 million in the same period last year;  life insurance companies to 17 million from 16.30 million; and non-life insurance companies to 7.72 million from 5.21 million.

Forty-eight companies actively engaged in providing microinsurance products took part in providing the data.

Of these 44 companies, 23 were MBAs, 12 were life insurance companies, and 13 were non-life insurance companies.

Earlier, Insurance Commissioner Reynaldo A. Regalado urged life and non-life insurance companies to take advantage of new technologies to make insurance coverage more accessible to Filipino consumers.

He said that insurance companies play a critical role in improving Filipinos’ resilience against the worsening effects of climate change.

Meanwhile, based on the 2021 Financial lnclusion Survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the percentage of adult Filipinos who have some form of insurance coverage in 2021 is 48 percent.