Number of microinsurance policyholders to double by 2015
EFFORTS of the government and the private insurance sector and the
presence of "adequate" distribution channels are seen to increase the
number of microinsurance policyholders to about seven million by 2015.
"The contribution of the private insurance sector and the government and
the use of adequate distribution channels such as community-based
organizations and rural banks is approximated to increase the number of
microinsurance policyholders to seven million by 2015 from three million
in 2010," Antonis Malagardis, program manager of German Agency for
International Cooperation (GIZ) Microinsurance Innovations Program for
Social Security, told BusinessWorld in an interview last week.
"Well-developed distribution channels are crucial to bringing the
microinsurance products and services to the low-income people," he said.
There are currently eight microinsurance providers from the nonlife
industry, seven from the life industry and 15 from mutual benefit
associations.
Mr. Malagardis said the figure could be achieved through the
government's continued promotion of microinsurance through the financial
literacy campaign being conducted by the Department of Finance in the
country.
The Insurance Commission (IC) and the GIZ are conducting financial
literacy campaign in the country until August.
For his part, Michael J. McCord, president of the Microinsurance Centre,
LLC, in a statement released over the weekend by Rural Bankers
Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking
Services (RBAP-MABS), said that technology and rural banks will serve as
"key distribution points" to increase the presence of microinsurance in
the country.
The Microinsurance Centre is a consulting firm dedicated to provide
microinsurance products to 3 billion low-income people across the globe,
according to the the Microinsurance Centre Web site.
Mobile phone technology can aid microinsurance providers to enhance
their marketing, selling, application process, premium collections and
claims notification to both prospective and existing policy holders, Mr.
McCord said before the members of RBAP, representatives of Philippine
Life Insurance Association and the Asian Development Bank who
participated in the microinsurance seminar conducted by the RBAP last week.
He also pointed out that the rural banks are "one of the best private
sector partner" for insurance companies and the government given their
presence within communities where the target market for microinsurance
products reside.
Microinsurance is one of the key priorities of the IC and the Aquino
administration.
Based on IC's Insurance Memorandum Circular 1-2010, microinsurance
products are those whose daily premiums do not exceed 5% of the current
daily minimum wage rate of non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila.
Also, the maximum sum of guaranteed benefits should not be 500 times the
daily minimum wage rate for non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila.
Based on the NCC data, as of October last year, 50 microinsurance
products have been approved since the circular was issued in January 2010.
Of these, 33 were life products while 17 were non-life products.
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