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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (September 30) released the Hong Kong insurance business statistics for 2013 with reference to the audited returns and actuarial information submitted by insurers.
In 2013, the total gross premiums of the Hong Kong insurance industry increased by 13.7 per cent to $299.5 billion.
For long-term insurance business, the office premiums of new Individual Life business increased by 17.9 per cent to $88.8 billion in 2013 when compared with 2012. Both Individual Life (Non-Linked) business and Individual Life (Linked) business recorded premium growth, with the former increased by 19.7 per cent to $69.6 billion and the latter increased by 11.8 per cent to $19.1 billion in terms of new office premiums. The total number of new policies decreased by 3.8 per cent to 1,028,724.
For in-force business, the total office premiums increased by 15 per cent from $224.1 billion in 2012 to $257.7 billion. The Individual Life category remained the dominant line of business, making up $240.7 billion or 93.4 per cent of the total business. The number of policies in 2013 stood at 10.4 million, carrying net liabilities of $1,059.1 billion. Yearly contributions for Retirement Scheme contracts administered by insurers decreased by 11.5 per cent to $8.3 billion. There were 58,965 Retirement Scheme contracts carrying net liabilities of $100.6 billion. The in-force office premiums of the Group Life business increased by 36.2 per cent to $2.7 billion, carrying net liabilities of $983.6 million. The in-force office premiums of the Annuity and Other businesses (comprising mainly the Permanent Health business) rose significantly by 60.3 per cent to $6 billion.
The general insurance business recorded increases in the gross and net premiums by 6.6 per cent to $41.8 billion and 6.9 per cent to $28.9 billion respectively in 2013 when compared with 2012. The overall retention ratio slightly increased from 68.9 per cent to 69 per cent.
The business growth in 2013 was mainly contributed by the General Liability business (comprising the Employees' Compensation business), the gross premiums of which surged by 15.6 per cent from $9.5 billion in 2012 to $11 billion in 2013. The Property Damage business also reported a growth in gross premiums of 7.1 per cent from $8.4 billion in 2012 to $9 billion in 2013, while the Accident & Health business recorded an increase in gross premiums of 4.3 per cent from $10.4 billion in 2012 to $10.9 billion in 2013.
The overall underwriting profit of the general insurance business increased significantly from $2 billion in 2012 to $3 billion in 2013, mainly due to favourable claims experience. The net claims incurred ratio dropped from 58 per cent in 2012 to 56.3 per cent in 2013.
The Accident & Health business recorded an underwriting profit of $951 million and continued to be the largest contributor in 2013. This was followed by the Property Damage business and the Pecuniary Loss business with underwriting profit of $798 million and $479 million respectively. As regards the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, the underwriting profit of the direct Motor Vehicle business increased from $104 million to $113 million whilst the loss incurred by the Employees' Compensation business shrank from $649 million to $377 million.
Detailed statistics, including industry aggregates and those of individual insurers, are available from the website of the OCI at www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:00
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