The Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA) has released provisional insurance and reinsurance market statistics for 2024, reporting a total of $637.8 billion in gross premiums for the year, a notable increase compared to the $549.7 billion reported for 2023.
Long-term business saw significant growth, with new office premiums (excluding Retirement Scheme business) rising by 21.4% to $219.8 billion, up from $181 billion in the prior year.
This growth was mainly driven by Non-Linked individual business, which generated $208.1 billion in net office premiums, a 22.8% increase. The segment comprised $182.4 billion from participating business and other businesses of $25.7 billion, as well as $11.2 billion derived from Linked individual business (remained stable).
Some 70,000 Qualifying Deferred Annuity Policies were issued that brought in $4.5 billion or 2.1% of the total premiums for individual business.
New business premiums derived from Mainland visitors increased by 6.5%to $62.8 billion, making up 28.6% of total new office premiums for individual business.
A majority of these policies were settled at regular intervals, with whole life (59%), critical illness (28%), and medical policies (5%) being the most popular. The IA will release further data on Mainland visitors alongside the provisional statistics for the first half of 2025.
Total revenue premiums of in-force business were $537.4 billion in 2024, a 11.4%increase from the $482.4 billion reported in 2023.
These were mainly composed of $471.8 billion derived from Non-Linked individual business (increased by 11.2%), $24 billion derived from Linked business (increased by 1.8%) and $35.7 billion derived from Retirement Scheme business (increased by 22%).
The total claims and benefits paid to policyholders increased by 6%, to $352.5 billion.
For the general business sector, the IA reported a total gross and net premiums in 2024 were $100.5 billion and $69.7 billion respectively, against which total gross claims of $53 billion were paid.
The overall operating profit for general business was $8.1 billion, out of which $3.3 billion was underwriting profit.
In comparison, 2023 saw total gross and net premiums of general insurance business of $67.3 billion and $43.3 billion respectively, against which total gross claims of $32.1 billion (increased by 6.8%) were paid.
The overall underwriting profit went down from $4.2 billion to $0.8 billion.
Direct general business recorded gross premiums of $51.4 billion and net premiums of $35.8 billion, with $28.1 billion in gross claims paid. Gross premiums by line included: Accident & Health, $22.8 billion; General Liability $12.1 billion; Property Damage $6.2 billion, and Motor Vehicle $5.4 billion.
General Liability and Property Damage significantly contributed to the $1.2 billion underwriting profit, partially offset by losses in Pecuniary Loss and Accident & Health.
Reinsurance inward business generated gross premiums of $49 billion and net premiums of $33.9 billion, with $25 billion in gross claims paid.
Property Damage, Accident & Health and General Liability were the primary sources of gross premiums, contributing to an overall underwriting profit of $2.1 billion, mainly attributable to Property Damage business.
The IA noted that “due to implementation of the Risk-based Capital regime on 1 July 2024, it is inappropriate to compare outturn of the general sector with corresponding figures published before.”
