NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The microinsurance market grew to more than 500 million risks in 2011, from 78 million risks in 2006, and could as large as 360 million people in Latin America alone, with Mexico and Brazil making up as much as 55 percent of the total, according to “Microinsurance in Latin America: Disruption in Practice,” a report from Celent.

Microinsurance typically has been aimed at people who have been ignored by mainstream commercial and social insurance schemes, Celent said, including low-income households, the working poor and the underserved. And, it could play an important social and economic role by helping to break the vicious circle of poverty and vulnerability that affects the low-income segments of the population, Celent said. As a result, microinsurance products could disrupt powerful incumbents by focusing on these poorly served markets, Celent said.