Life insurance business rises 10% to S$1.68bn in first half of this year

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s life insurance industry achieved a 10 per cent increase in total weighted new business premiums in the first half of this year from the previous corresponding period to S$1.68 billion, helped by an increase in both annual premium and single premium products sales, the Life Insurance Association (LIA) reported on Monday (Aug 7).

Single premium transactions increased by 10 per cent to S$547.3 million while annual premium sales were up by 11 per cent to S$1.13 billion for the same period.

“This is a positive development in the context of economic uncertainties, an ageing population and a soft labour market,” LIA said.

“We are encouraged that the industry continues to grow from strength to strength … We see a steady take up of products designed to provide regular payouts from retirement age. This shows that people are appreciating the importance of preparing ahead for future years,” Mr Patrick Teow, president of LIA Singapore, said.

LIA is “cautiously optimistic” about the outlook for the industry and “hopes that it will continue on a growth path”, he added.

As of June 30, the life insurance industry paid out S$2.82 billion to policyholders and beneficiaries. Of this amount, S$2.38 billion was for policies that matured. The remaining S$440 million was for death, critical illness or disability claims, LIA said.

As employment in Singapore continues to grow in the finance and industry sector, LIA noted that the first half of the year saw an 8 per cent increase in the number of employed individuals within the life insurance industry. A total of 6,857 individuals were employed by member companies, up from 6,328 staff a year ago. “The industry continues to seek talent in all areas, including underwriting and specialized digital technologies,” the association noted.

Overall the activity seen for policies sold through online channels, direct purchase insurance (DPI) is still “quite small,” said Mr Teow, with about 200 cases per quarter for the CompareFIRST DPI. CompareFirst (www.comparefirst.sg), is a life-insurance portal launched in 2015 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Consumers Association of Singapore, the Life Insurance Association and financial education programme MoneySENSE.

As for plans to grow on digitisation fronts, an LIA spokesperson noted that there has been a lot of companies taking their own initiatives, with some launching new initiatives this year. He said that it is likely to see an uptick over time in this segment but it will take some time for it to grow.