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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (September 2) released provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first half of 2009.
In the first half of 2009, gross and net premiums for general insurance business registered a modest increase of 1.8% to HK$14.508 billion and 2.4% to HK$10.5 billion respectively compared with the corresponding period in 2008. Overall underwriting performance also improved from a profit of $826 million to $1.294 billion.
On direct business, gross and net premiums gained 2.0% to $11.711 billion and 2.9% to $8.781 billion respectively in the first half of 2009, driven again by Accident & Health business whose gross and net premiums were $4.090 billion and $3.551 billion respectively, as well as construction-related Employees' Compensation business whose gross and net premiums were $582 million and $498 million respectively.
The underwriting profit of direct business advanced from HK$306 million to HK$925 million in the first half of 2009 due to favourable claims experience. Specifically, Property Damage business returned a profit of $318 million as compared with $55 million for the same period of 2008 when severe losses were inflicted by tropical storms. Employees' Compensation business also recovered from a loss of $172 million to a profit of $18 million, while Non-Statutory Ships business and Motor Vehicle business managed to trim their respective losses from $98 million to $12 million and from $68 million to $26 million.
On reinsurance inward business, gross and net premiums edged up by 0.9% to $2.797 billion and 0.3% to $1.719 billion respectively in the first half of 2009. At the same time, underwriting profit reduced from $520 million to $368 million due to adverse claims experience.
Total revenue premiums of long term in-force business was HK$74.841 billion in the first half of 2009, losing 18.6% over the same period of 2008.
The revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business grew by 0.7% to $42.664 billion whereas Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business plunged by 51.7% to $17.345 billion. Contributions of Retirement Scheme business added 9.4% to $13.264 billion; total insurance benefits paid to individuals dropped 4.9% to $28.204 billion.
New office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long term business for the first half of 2009 contracted by 52.6% to $19.517 billion compared with the same period in 2008, attributable to 7.3% drop in Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business that made up $13.263 billion and a massive retrenchment of 77.4% in Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business that accounted for $6.025 billion.
In respect of new policies issued to Mainland visitors, office premiums amounted to $1.237 billion, representing 6.4% of total new office premiums ($19.411 billion) for individual business in the first half of 2009.
A summary of provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance business from January 2009 to June 2009 is at Annex. Further details can be downloaded from the OCI's website: (http://www.oci.gov.hk).
Ends/Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:01
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