MR Microinsurance_2012_03_29.indd - International Labour ...

Current trends in microinsurance
Signifi cant growth is also apparent in Bangladesh and Pakistan, while countries
like Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are beginning their journey and
already have signifi cant outreach. Overall, with roughly 350 to 400 million risks
insured, Asia is spearheading microinsurance development, in part because of
large and dense populations, interest from public and private insurers, willing
aggregators or distribution channels, and, perhaps most importantly, active
government involvement, for example through subsidies.
Latin America
In Latin America, the bulk of the almost 8 million insured lives in 2006 were in
Peru and Colombia. Peru had primarily credit life cover, which refl ected its
mature microfi nance industry, while the fi gures from Colombia suggested that
microinsurance was essentially based around a single insurance company with a
popular funeral policy.
Although growth data are generally unavailable, Colombia is an exception
because the insurance association, Fasecolda, has been collecting microinsurance
performance data for years. According to Fasecolda, microinsurance grew from
less than 1.5 million risks covered in 2008 to nearly 8 million in July 2011 (see
Figure 1.1). Initially, the growth was attributed to the group life and personal
accident products distributed via public service companies, but in 2010–11
unemployment and home insurance products experienced strong take-up.
Figure 1.1 Microinsurance risks covered in Colombia
Millions of risks covered
10
8
6
4
2
0
01–08
03–08
05–08
07–08
09–08
11–08
01–09
03–09
05–09
07–09
09–09
Source: Data provided by Fasecolda, Colombia, 2011.
11–09
01–10
03–10
05–10
07–10
09–10
11–10
01–11
Risks covered
03–11
05–11
07–11
13