The nearly two decades of KMBA is unequivocally intertwined with the history of KDCI and, later, KCoop. KMBA’s start-up fund was sourced from a grant from KDCI, which has likewise been contributing its community presence and center collection infrastructures to KMBA’s field operations. The KDCI grant has also initially enabled KMBA to offer to children of its primary and associate members the Kuya Jun Scholarship Program, named after Severiano C. Marcelo, Jr., first KDCI executive director, who passed away in 2008. (A brief history of KDCI is found in (www.kcoop.org.ph).while its first decade is detailed in the book Transforming Lives: The KDCI Story, 2003-2013. 2014. Quezon City: KDCI.

KMBA was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2006, and was given a license to operate as a mutual benefit association by the Insurance Commission in April 2007. It is a nonstock, not-for-profit organization owned and managed by its members. It receives technical assistance from the RIMANSI Organization for Asia and the Pacific, Inc., “a resource center that develops and offers risk management solutions to member-owned micro-insurers, especially Mutual Benefit Associations” (www.rimansi.org).

KMBA envisions a self-reliant and self-sustaining mutual benefit association that actively and appropriately responds to financial risk management needs of poor Filipino families. Toward this end, it offers microinsurance products and services that provide to the poorest Filipino families immediate financial assistance in times of dire needs.

KMBA pursues three main goals, all aimed at being of service to the Filipino poor, particularly the nanay. These are (1) promoting basic life insurance that can broaden the safety net of the poor, (2) engaging in socially-oriented activities that render security needs assistance members, and (3 developing continuously cost-effective mechanisms for delivering microinsurance products and services.