The Philippines’ Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) saw a 12.5% increase in gross premiums written in the first quarter as the civil service pension fund insured more public assets.
Premiums written rose to 2.98 billion pesos (US$52 million) from 2.65 billion pesos in the first quarter of 2023, the GSIS says in a statement on May 2.
As a result, the net worth of its general insurance fund was up 6.6% to 54.63 billion pesos from 51.26 billion pesos at the end of 2023.
Last year, the GSIS’ premiums written hit a record 9.8 billion pesos, making it the largest non-life insurer in the Philippines.
As of end-March, the pension fund had issued 52,644 general insurance policies in total, covering 798.4 billion pesos of assets.
“The GSIS is aggressively campaigning for the protection of all government insurable assets and interests,” says Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso, president and general manager of the pension fund. It is also ramping up marketing activities to insure more government employee risk, especially automobile and fire.
Veloso says the GSIS protects government budget and individual programmes against unexpected losses such as fire, earthquakes and typhoons. “And more importantly, we are able to pool long-term funds and put them in investments to help grow the overall economy,” he adds.
Valerie Marquez, senior vice president for insurance at the GSIS, says the pension fund will soon introduce a parametric insurance scheme covering local governments, where payouts will be made immediately after hitting loss triggers.
According to Marquez, this will help many local governments because it wouldn’t require the traditional process of claims adjustment after a loss.
