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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (September 8) released the provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first half of 2006.
In the first half of 2006, gross and net premiums of general insurance business recorded a decline of 4.3% to $12,132 million and 0.7% to $8,832 million respectively compared with the corresponding period of 2005.
The overall underwriting profit of general insurance business substantially increased from $509 million to $1,360 million. This was mainly attributable to the significant improvement in the underwriting performance of Ships business, turning from a loss of $556 million to a profit of $3 million. Property Damage business remained the largest contributor to the overall underwriting profit, albeit reducing from a profit of $523 million to $409 million.
On direct business, gross premiums increased by 0.5% to $9,867 million and net premiums increased by 5.5% to $7,197 million in the first half of 2006. With the significantly improved performance of Ships business, the underwriting result of direct business achieved a profit of $829 million in the first half of 2006, up from $154 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), the underwriting profit of Motor Vehicle business slightly increased from $133 million to $135 million whereas EC business turned from a loss of $78 million to a profit $3 million due to a decrease in the net claims incurred ratio.
On reinsurance inward business, the gross and net premiums decreased by 20.6% to $2,265 million and 21.1% to $1,635 million respectively. The underwriting result continued to be profitable, with an increase in profit from $354 million to $530 million due to improvement in claims experience.
Total revenue premiums of long-term in-force business amounted to $65,332 million in the first half of this year, representing an increase of 22.6% 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 7.2% to $32,703 million and 62.9% to $22,151 million respectively. Contributions of Retirement Scheme business also recorded a growth by 15% to $9,143 million. On the benefit side, total insurance benefits paid to individuals during the said period increased by 27.9% to $20,050 million.
New business statistics for the first half of 2006 showed that new office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long-term business increased by 30% to $26,875 million, compared with the same period in 2005. Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business decreased by 6.3% to $10,228 million in terms of new office premiums. New office premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by 71.9% to $16,479 million.
During the first half of 2006, office premiums in respect of the new policies issued to Mainland visitors amounted to $1,505 million, representing 5.6% of the total new office premiums ($26,785 million) for individual business during the said period.
The summary of provisional statistics of Hong Kong insurance business from January to June 2006 is attached as an annex. Provisional statistics in detail can be downloaded from the OCI's website: http://www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, September 8, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:01
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