Malaysia: Life insurance posts strong 1-3Q 2016 performance
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Jan 2017
The life insurance industry has delivered a strong performance in the first three quarters of 2016, says the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM).
New business weighted premium (100% of regular premiums plus 10% of single premiums) rose by 18.3% to MYR3.68 billion (US$822 million) in January-September. Traditional life insurance business grew by 27%, outpacing investment-linked sales which increased by 12%. Despite this, investment-linked business contributed 54.9% of new business weighted premiums with the remaining 45.1% accounted for by traditional life insurance.
LIAM President, Mr Toi See Jong, said that the gross sum assured for all new individual policies combined hit MYR82 billion for the first nine months of last year compared with MYR68 billion for the corresponding period of 2015. Investment-linked business grew faster in terms of gross sum assured compared with traditional life insurance with growth rates of 24.7% and 7.2% respectively.
For the first three quarters of 2016, the life sector saw a 7.7% increase in death, disability, medical, bonus and other payouts to MYR7.11 billion. The increases were seen in all types of claims except disability.