The Philippines’ Insurance Commission (IC) said that the “majority” of general insurers in the market were unable to meet the increased capital requirements that came into effect at the end of 2019.
Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said that the regulator will announce the firms that were able to meet the capital requirements within the first quarter of 2020, BusinessWorld reported.
The IC, through an act of Congress, required insurance firms to have at least PHP900 million (US$17.7 million) by the end of 2019, up from PHP550 million previously. By end-2022, this capital requirement will be raised to PHP1.3 billion (US$25.5 million).
There are currently 31 life and 55 general insurers operating in the Philippines.
While a large number of general insurers were unable to meet the requirements, Funa said that most life insurance companies are able to comply, with only “a couple” unable to do so. He added that several insurance companies are going to merge in order to meet the new solvency requirements, but the regulator will leave it to the companies to announce the specifics of these transactions.
