30 September 2019
The Insurance Authority (IA) today (30 September 2019) released Hong Kong insurance business statistics for 2018 with reference to the audited returns and actuarial information submitted by insurers. The total gross premiums reached $514.5 billion in 2018, indicating a year-on-year increase of 5.2%.
(Percentage changes in brackets in the following paragraphs represent changes over 2017)
Long term business
Total office premiums for in-force long term business were $461.4 billion in 2018 (increased by 4.7%). The Individual Life category remained the dominant line of business, making up $426.3 billion or 92.4% of total long term business. The respective number of policies in 2018 stood at 13.2 million, carrying net liabilities of $1,947.8 billion.
Yearly contributions for Retirement Scheme contracts administered by insurers were $9.4 billion (increased by 5.2%). There were 63,142 Retirement Scheme contracts carrying net liabilities of $125.2 billion. In-force office premiums for Group Life business were $3.5 billion (increased by 3.1%), carrying net liabilities of $1 billion. In-force office premiums for Annuity business were $20.7 billion (increased by 69.6%). In-force office premiums for Other business (mainly Permanent Health business) were $1.5 billion (increased by 12%).
Office premiums for new Individual Life business remained stable at $150.6 billion, including $133.2 billion from Individual Life (Non-Linked) business (decreased by 3.4%) and $17.4 billion from Linked business (increased by 36.7%). The total number of new policies was 1.3 million in 2018 (increased by 1.5%). Office premiums for new Individual Annuity business were $10.8 billion (increased by 40.5%).
General business
In 2018, the total gross premium and net premium of general business stood at $53.1 billion (increased by 10%) and $34.7 billion (increased by 5%). The overall retention slightly decreased from 68.5% to 65.4%.
The gross premium growth was mainly driven by increase in General Liability business followed by Accident & Health business, of which the amount were $13.1 billion (increased by 22.3%) and $17.1 billion (increased by 9.2%) respectively.
The general insurance business restored its profitability with an underwriting profit of $583 million in 2018 compared with a loss of $827 million in 2017. The overall net claims incurred ratio decreased from 63.8% in 2017 to 62.3% in 2018.
The overall claims position for general insurance business slightly improved as compared with 2017 despite the impact of Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018. In 2017, the impact of Typhoon Hato on Property Damage business resulted in a loss of $1.2 billion, which was the largest contributor of underwriting loss for 2017. However, in 2018, Property Damage business resumed profitability with an underwriting profit of $199 million.
With regard to the direct Motor Vehicle business and the direct Employees’ Compensation business, the performance continued to improve with underwriting losses reduced from $521 million to $441 million, and from $584 million to $150 million respectively.
A summary of the Hong Kong insurance statistics for 2018 is in the annex . Detailed statistics of industry aggregates and individual insurers are available at the IA website .
Ends