Insurance industry posts H1 gross premiums of $143.7 billion

But underwriting profit falls 6% to $1.5 billion.

Hong Kong’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance said the gross premium total for the first half was a 14.5% increase on-year.

It said that for the long term in-force business, total revenue premiums was $120.9 billion, an increase of 14.9% on-year. Revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (non-linked) business increased by 14.6% to $82.8 billion while revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (linked) business increased by 20.6% to $28.2 billion in the first six months of 2013.

For the long term business, the new office premiums during the first half of 2013 increased by 21.1% to $45.8 billion.

The new office premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (non-linked) and Individual Life and Annuity (linked) business increased by 18% to $35.1 billion and by 33.4% to $10.5 billion, respectively.

The gross and net premiums of general insurance business increased by 12.5% to $22.8 billion and 14.1% to $16.2 billion, respectively. Underwriting profit, however, dropped from $1.6 billion to $1.5 billion in the first half of 2013.