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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance today (November 28) released provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first three quarters of 2014.
Total gross premiums of the Hong Kong insurance industry in the first three quarters of 2014 amounted to $246.6 billion, representing an increase of 13.8% over the corresponding period in 2013.
The total amount of revenue premiums of long term in-force business was $211.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2014, increasing by 15.5% over the same period of 2013. Revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business increased by 23.2% to $157.1 billion whereas Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business decreased by 8.4% to $37.5 billion. Contributions of Retirement Scheme business grew by 10.6% to $13.9 billion.
New office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long term business for the first three quarters of 2014 increased by 22.4% to $84.0 billion compared with the same period of 2013. In terms of new business premiums, Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business increased by 32.6% to $71.6 billion. On the other hand, new office premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business decreased by 17.0% to $11.9 billion.
In respect of policies issued to Mainland visitors, new office premiums amounted to $16.9 billion, representing 20.3% of the total new office premiums ($83.7 billion) for individual business in the first three quarters of 2014.
In the first three quarters of 2014, gross and net premiums of general insurance business recorded a growth of 4.3% to $34.7 billion and 3.3% to $24.3 billion respectively compared with the corresponding period in 2013. Overall underwriting profit also recorded an increase from $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion.
On direct business, gross and net premiums increased by 3.4% to $25.8 billion and 3.6% to $19.4 billion respectively in the first three quarters of 2014 compared with the corresponding period in 2013, mainly driven by Ships business and Motor Vehicle business. The former recorded gross and net premiums of $1.6 billion and $1.1 billion respectively, while the latter recorded $3 billion and $2.4 billion respectively.
In the first three quarters of 2014, the underwriting profit of direct business maintained at $1.7 billion, which is on a par with that in the corresponding period of 2013. The underwriting profit of General Liability business increased from $214 million to $350 million. However, such increase was offset by the underwriting performance of Ships business which showed a turnaround from a profit of $91 million to a loss of $46 million.
On reinsurance inward business, gross and net premiums increased from $8.3 billion to $8.9 billion and from $4.8 billion to $4.9 billion respectively in the first three quarters of 2014 compared with the corresponding period in 2013. Due to improvement in claims experience, the underwriting profit rose significantly from $470 million to $717 million.
A summary of provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance business for the first three quarters of 2014 is in the Annex. Further details can be downloaded from the website of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance: www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, November 28, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:00
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