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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (May 25) released provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first quarter of 2006.
In the first quarter, gross and net premiums of general insurance business recorded a decline of 2.2% to HK$6,795 million and 0.6% to HK$4,881 million respectively as compared with the corresponding period of 2005.
The overall underwriting profit of general insurance business substantially increased from HK$63 million to HK$637 million. This was solely attributable to the significant improvement in the underwriting performance of Ships business, turning from a loss of HK$533 million to a profit of HK$50 million. Property Damage business remained the largest contributor to the overall underwriting profit, albeit reducing from a profit of HK$259 million to HK$214 million, to be followed by Pecuniary Loss business and Motor Vehicle business, with a profit of HK$122 million and HK$107 million respectively.
On direct business, gross premiums increased by 3.0% to HK$5,366 million and net premiums increased by 6.3% to HK$3,857 million in the first quarter of 2006. With the significantly improved performance of Ships business, the underwriting result of direct business achieved a profit of HK$424 million in the first quarter of 2006, against a loss of HK$123 million for the corresponding quarter of 2005. As regards the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, i.e. Motor Vehicle business and Employees' Compensation business (EC), the underwriting profit of Motor Vehicle business decreased slightly from HK$98 million to HK$82 million whereas the underwriting loss of EC business increased from HK$24 million to HK$63 million due to an increase in net claims incurred ratio.
On reinsurance inward business, the gross and net premiums decreased by 17.7% to HK$1,429 million and 20.1% to HK$1,025 million respectively. The underwriting result continued to be profitable, with an increase in profit from HK$186 million to HK$213 million due to improvement in claims experience recorded in the quarter.
Total revenue premiums of long term in-force business amounted to HK$30,799 million in the first quarter of this year, representing an increase of 22.0% over the same period in 2005.
Revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business and Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by 10.4% to HK$15,876 million and 60.8% to HK$9,913 million respectively. Contributions of Retirement Scheme business also recorded a growth by 5.9% to HK$4,282 million. On the benefit side, total insurance benefits paid to individuals during the said period increased by 28.2% to HK$9,475 million.
New business statistics for the first quarter of 2006 showed that new office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long term business increased by 34.4% to HK$12,241 million, compared with the same period in 2005. Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business increased by 1.1% to HK$4,868 million in terms of new office premiums. New office premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by 73.1% to HK$7,284 million.
During the first quarter of 2006, office premiums in respect of the new policies issued to Mainland visitors amounted to HK$652 million, representing 5.3% of the total new office premiums (HK$ 12,189 million) for individual business during the said period.
A summary of the provisional statistics of Hong Kong insurance business from January to March 2006 is attached as an annex. Provisional statistics in detail can be downloaded from the OCI's website: http://www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Thursday, May 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:31
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