17 January 2025
The Insurance Authority (IA) today (17 January 2025) released the provisional business statistics for the first three quarters of 2024, with total gross premiums reaching $480.8 billion.
Long term business
New office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) of long term business were $169.6 billion (increased by 15.7%), mainly composed of $162 billion derived from Non-Linked individual business (increased by 18%) which can be further broken down into participating business of $141.4 billion and other businesses of $20.7 billion, as well as $7.2 billion derived from Linked individual business (decreased by 19.7%). Some 58,000 Qualifying Deferred Annuity Policies were issued that brought in $3.7 billion or 2.2% of the total premiums for individual business.
New business premiums derived from Mainland visitors dipped by 0.4% to $46.6 billion compared with the same period in 2023, representing 27.6% of total new office premiums for individual business. A majority of these policies were settled at regular intervals. Whole life, critical illness and medical policies accounted for about 59%, 28% and 5% of them respectively. Having regard to the seasonal travelling pattern of Mainland visitors, the related business statistics will be released at semi-annually rather than quarterly intervals from the first quarter of 2025.
Total revenue premiums of in-force business were $405.8 billion in the first three quarters of 2024 (increased by 8.3%), mainly composed of $358.4 billion derived from Non-Linked individual business (increased by 8.7%), $16.8 billion derived from Linked business (decreased by 7.5%) and $25.5 billion derived from Retirement Scheme business (increased by 14%). The total claims and benefits paid to policy holders amounted to $270.2 billion1 (increased by 12.7%).
General business
In the first three quarters of 2024, the gross and net premiums of general business were $75 billion and $51.7 billion respectively, against which total gross claims of $38.4 billion were paid. The overall operating profit was $6.7 billion and the underwriting profit was $2.2 billion.
The gross and net premiums of direct general business were $39.5 billion and $27.9 billion respectively. The former are mainly attributable to Accident & Health business of $18 billion which includes medical business of $15.5 billion and travel business of $1.5 billion, General Liability (comprising Employees’ Compensation) business of $9.4 billion, Property Damage business of $5.1 billion and Motor Vehicles business of $4.2 billion, against which total gross claims of $19.8 billion were paid. The overall underwriting profit of $2.5 billion was driven largely by General Liability (comprising Employees’ Compensation) business, Pecuniary Loss business and Property Damage business but partly offset by Accident & Health business.
On reinsurance inward business, gross and net premiums of $35.5 billion and $23.9 billion respectively were recorded, mainly contributed by Property Damage business, Accident & Health business and General Liability business, against which total gross claims of $18.6 billion were paid. The overall underwriting loss was $0.3 billion.
Following implementation of the Risk-based Capital regime on 1 July 2024, a new set of regulatory returns was introduced and some definitions were modified. The insurers must now report their underwriting performance based on financial year instead of calendar year, causing some data to be partially covered in this set of statistics. An element reflecting offshore business in respect of general insurance was also included. It is therefore inappropriate to make a direct comparison between the latest figures with those published in previous years.
A summary of the provisional statistics is provided at Annex, and additional details can be obtained at the IA website.
Ends
Note:
1 Including lapsation/surrender benefits of $128.8 billion, as well as other claims and benefits of $141.4 billion.