Hong Kong’s insurance premiums reach $83b in 2024

Both long-term and general insurance sectors registered notable increases.

Hong Kong’s insurance industry’s gross premiums bagged $82.91b (HK$637.8b), driven by higher increments for both the long-term (or life) and general insurance businesses, data from the Insurance Authority (HKIA) showed.

In the long-term business sector, new office premiums, excluding Retirement Scheme business, reached $28.57b (HK$219.8b), an increase of 21.4% YoY. Non-linked individual business contributed $27.05b (HK$208.1b), up 22.8%, consisting of $23.71b (HK$182.4b) from participating businesses and $3.34b (HK$25.7b) from other businesses.

Linked individual business premiums remained stable at $1.46b (HK$11.2b).

Premiums from Mainland visitors totalled $8.16b (HK$62.8b), up 6.5%, representing 28.6% of total new office premiums for individual business.

Approximately 59% of these policies were whole life insurance, 28% were critical illness policies, and 5% were medical policies.

Updated figures for Mainland visitor business will be released with the provisional statistics for the first half of 2025.

Total revenue premiums of in-force business amounted to $69.86b (HK$537.4b), an 11.4% increase, primarily from Non-Linked individual business at $61.33b (HK$471.8b) (up 11.2%), Linked business at $3.12b (HK$24b) (up 1.8%), and Retirement Scheme business at $4.64b (HK$35.7b) (up 22%).

Claims and benefits paid to policyholders totalled $45.83b (HK$352.5b), a 6% increase.

In the general business sector, total gross and net premiums were $13.07b (HK$100.5b) and $9.06b (HK$69.7b), respectively.

Total gross claims paid amounted to $6.89b (HK$53b). The sector recorded an overall operating profit of $1.05b (HK$8.1b), with underwriting profit contributing $0.43b (HK$3.3b).

For direct general business, gross and net premiums were $6.68b (HK$51.4b) and $4.65b (HK$35.8b), with gross claims of $3.65b (HK$28.1b) paid.

Accident & Health, General Liability (including Employees’ Compensation), Property Damage, and Motor Vehicle businesses generated $2.96b (HK$22.8b), $1.57b (HK$12.1b), $0.81b (HK$6.2b), and $0.70b (HK$5.4b) in gross premiums, respectively.

General Liability and Property Damage businesses contributed most to the underwriting profit of $0.16b (HK$1.2b), whilst Pecuniary Loss and Accident & Health businesses posted underwriting losses.

In reinsurance inward business, gross and net premiums totalled $6.37b (HK$49b) and $4.41b (HK$33.9b), with $3.25b (HK$25b) paid in gross claims.

The majority of gross premiums came from Property Damage, Accident & Health, and General Liability businesses.

Underwriting profit for this segment was $0.27b (HK$2.1b), mainly driven by the Property Damage business.

Due to the implementation of the Risk-based Capital regime on 1 July, comparisons with previous years' figures for the general business sector are not appropriate.

($1.00 = HK$7.76)