Insurance Commission Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc delivers his message during the ceremony

To culminate Microinsurance Month, the Insurance Commission spearheaded an awarding ceremony themed “Gabi ng Parangal at Pasasalamat sa mga Tagapagtaguyod ng Microinsurance” to recognize organizations promoting microinsurance in the country. The awarding ceremony was held on January 31 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Three partner insurance providers and two participating banks of the United States Agency for International Development-supported Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS) Program were among those recognized during the ceremony. Country Bankers Life Insurance Corporation, Pioneer Insurance, and Philippine Prudential Life Inc., were cited as outstanding life and non-life commercial companies while the Rural Bank of Talisayan and Katipunan Bank were recognized for their mutual benefit associations.

Since 2008, RBAP-MABS has been collaborating with rural banks and the regulatory institutions to improve access to insurance options of low-income households. To do this, RBAP-MABS works with the insurance-providers on product options that can be made available to the rural bank clients while training and assisting rural banks with the licensing process of the Insurance Commission (IC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). To date, 354 rural bank officers and staff from 168 rural banks have completed the Basic Microinsurance Training Course and 61 banks are in the approval process of IC and BSP. Today, more than 472,600 rural bank clients and their household members are now availing microinsurance services through 128 rural bank offices.