The Insurance Authority (IA) released the Hong Kong insurance business statistics for 2021 today (30 September 2022), making reference to audited returns and actuarial data submitted by authorized insurers. The total gross premiums were $581.7 billion in 2021, an increase of 0.06% over a year before.
(Percentage changes in brackets in the following paragraphs represent changes over 2020)
Long term business
The total office premiums of in-force long term business were $520.1 billion in 2021 (decreased by 0.3%). Individual Life continued to be the dominant line of business that made up $464.6 billion (increased by 1.3%) or 89.3% of market share, involving 13.9 million policies that provided coverage for net liabilities of $2,833.6 billion. On the other hand, in-force office premiums for Annuity business were $41.7 billion (decreased by 12.9%), with around 207,000 Qualifying Deferred Annuity Policies (QDAPs) remaining valid as at 31 December 2021.
The office premiums of new Individual Life business were $152.4 billion (increased by 27.4%), including $121.8 billion attributable to Individual Life (Non-Linked) business (increased by 14%) and $30.7 billion to Linked business (increased by 139.7%). The total number of new policies was about 990,000 in 2021 (decreased by 5.2%), and the office premiums for new Individual Annuity business were $11.9 billion (decreased by 10.3%). Some 47,000 QDAPs were sold that generated total annualised premiums of $3.5 billion.
General business
In 2021, total gross and net premiums of general business were $61.6 billion (increased by 2.9%) and $41.5 billion (increased by 2.4%) respectively. The overall underwriting profit lowered from $2.3 billion to $1.7 billion.
The gross premiums of Pecuniary Loss business grew by 24.9% to $5.9 billion, riding on upward adjustment of maximum property values under the Mortgage Insurance Programme, while that of Property Damage business also went up by 8.1% to $13.1 billion. However, inward Motor Vehicle reinsurance business contracted by $900 million, reducing the overall gross premiums of Motor Vehicle business to $5.5 billion (decreased by 11.4%).
The underwriting profit of direct business in 2021 dropped from $1.9 billion to $1.1 billion as the net claims incurred ratio of Accident & Health business rose from 64.8% to 76.4% upon gradual normalisation of settlement activities. Employees’ Compensation business stayed stable, returning a profit of $501 million (increased by 22.5%) even though underwriting loss for direct Motor Vehicle business widened from $242 million to $301 million.
On reinsurance inward business, the underwriting profit advanced from $480 million to $663 million in 2021, driven by Proportional Treaty business which turned around from a loss of $202 million to a profit of $6 million.
A summary of the Hong Kong insurance statistics for 2021 is at Annex , and further details can be obtained at the IA website .