********************************************
The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (September 30) released the Hong Kong insurance business statistics for 2014 with reference to the audited returns and actuarial information submitted by insurers.
In 2014, the total gross premiums of the Hong Kong insurance industry increased by 13.3 per cent to $339.3 billion.
For long-term insurance business, the office premiums of new Individual Life business increased by 22.8 per cent to $109 billion in 2014 when compared with 2013. New office premiums for Individual Life (Non-Linked) business increased by 33.3 per cent to $92.8 billion. On the other hand, Individual Life (Linked) business dropped by 15.7 per cent to $16.1 billion in terms of new office premiums. The total number of new policies increased slightly by 1.1 per cent to 1,040,008 in 2014.
For in-force business, the total office premiums increased by 14.7 per cent from $257.7 billion in 2013 to $295.7 billion. The Individual Life category remained the dominant line of business, making up $277.1 billion or 93.7 per cent of the total business. The number of policies in 2014 stood at 10.8 million, carrying net liabilities of $1,230.6 billion. Yearly contributions for Retirement Scheme contracts administered by insurers decreased by 4.3 per cent to $7.9 billion. There were 67,249 Retirement Scheme contracts carrying net liabilities of $103.7 billion. The in-force office premiums of Group Life business increased by 9.4 per cent to $2.9 billion, carrying net liabilities of $1.1 billion. The in-force office premiums of Annuity and Other businesses (comprising mainly Permanent Health business) rose by 28.3 per cent to $7.8 billion.
The general insurance business recorded an increase in the gross and net premiums by 4.4 per cent to $43.6 billion and 4.5 per cent to $30.2 billion respectively in 2014 when compared with 2013. The overall retention ratio slightly increased from 69 per cent to 69.1 per cent.
The business growth in 2014 was mainly contributed by the Accident & Health business, the gross premiums of which increased by 6.2 per cent from $10.9 billion in 2013 to $11.5 billion in 2014. The Pecuniary Loss business also reported a growth in gross premiums of 13.9 per cent from $2.5 billion in 2013 to $2.9 billion in 2014, while the Goods in Transit business posted an upturn in gross premiums of 23.9 per cent from $1.4 billion in 2013 to $1.7 billion in 2014.
The overall underwriting profit of the general insurance business in 2014 was $3 billion, which is on a par with that of 2013. The net claims incurred ratio slightly increased from 56.3 per cent in 2013 to 56.4 per cent in 2014.
The Property Damage business recorded an underwriting profit of $1 billion and became the largest contributor in 2014. This was followed by the Accident & Health business and the General Liability business with underwriting profit of $581 million and $564 million respectively. As regards the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, the underwriting profit of the direct Motor Vehicle business shrank from $113 million to $34 million whilst the loss incurred by the Employees' Compensation business narrowed from $377 million to $75 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/Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:00
NNNN
