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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (November 29) released the provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first three quarters of 2006.
In the first three quarters of 2006, general insurance business remained stable and gross premiums recorded a slight decline of 0.4% to HK$18,026 million compared with the corresponding period of 2005. Net premiums, on the other hand, increased by 0.5% to HK$12,856 million due to a marginally higher retention rate.
Overall underwriting profit of general insurance business substantially increased from HK$860 million to HK$2,034 million. This was mainly attributable to the general improvement in the claims experience recorded in the industry. More prominent was the significant improvement in the underwriting performance of Ships business, which turned from a loss of HK$575 million to a profit of HK$42 million. Property Damage business remained the largest contributor to the overall underwriting profit, albeit reducing from a profit of HK$731 million to HK$612 million.
On direct business, gross and net premiums increased by 2.8% to HK$14,394 million and 5.9% to HK$10,421 million respectively in the first three quarters of 2006. With the significantly improved performance of Ships business, the underwriting result of direct business achieved a profit of HK$1,207 million in the first three quarters of 2006, up from HK$351 million for the corresponding period of 2005. As regards the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, i.e., Motor Vehicle business and Employees' Compensation business (EC), underwriting profit of Motor Vehicle business moderately increased from HK$162 million to HK$196 million whereas EC business turned from a loss of HK$160 million to a profit of HK$21 million largely due to the significant release of over-provision for past claims.
On reinsurance inward business, gross and net premiums decreased by 11.1% to HK$3,632 million and 17.4% to HK$2,435 million respectively. Underwriting result continued to be profitable, with an increase in profit from HK$509 million to HK$827 million due to improvement in claims experience.
Total revenue premiums of long term in-force business amounted to HK$97,616 million in the first three quarters of this year, representing an increase of 18.5% over the same period of 2005.
Revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business and Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by 6.4% to HK$50,211 million and 47.4% to HK$31,345 million respectively. Contributions of Retirement Scheme business also recorded a growth by 16.6% to HK$14,097 million. On the benefit side, total insurance benefits paid to individuals during the said period increased by 27.7% to HK$32,032 million.
New business statistics for the first three quarters of 2006 showed that new office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long term business increased by 20.8% to HK$38,400 million, compared with the same period of 2005. Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business decreased by 9.9% to HK$15,020 million in terms of new office premiums. New office premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by 55.4% to HK$23,109 million.
During the first three quarters of 2006, office premiums in respect of new policies issued to Mainland visitors amounted to HK$2,175 million, representing 5.7% of the total new office premiums (HK$38,265 million) for individual business during the said period.
Summary of provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance business from January to September 2006 is attached as an annex. Provisional statistics in detail can be downloaded from the OCI's website: http://www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:31
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