Singapore's life insurance industry recorded a total of S$2.63 billion in weighted new business premiums for 1H 2022, a slight contraction of 1.9% as compared to a year ago, according to the Life Insurance Association, Singapore.
Khor Hock Seng, president, LIA Singapore, said, "The life insurance industry has remained resilient and achieved a commendable performance amidst the increased uncertainty in the global economy due to geopolitical tensions, recurring COVID-19 waves and rising inflationary pressures.
"We continue to see strong consumer demand for life insurance which is an effective all-weather category of financial products that provide financial security and protection. This can be seen from the sustained growth in the single-premium products which remained popular amongst Singaporeans."
Single-premium products recorded a 12.5% year-on-year increase in weighted premiums amounting to S$1.44 billion for 1H 2022.
Correspondingly, uptake of annual premium products recorded a reduction of 15.1% from the same period last year, amounting to S$1.19bn in total weighted annual premiums.
The number of new policies purchased online continues to increase to 430,725 in 1H 2022 compared to 203,351 in 1H 2021. These are purchases transacted online by customers without financial advisory.
These online purchases totalled S$66m in weighted premiums, accounting for 2.5% of the total weighted premiums for 1H 2022.
Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) remained a major health insurance product.
Total new business premiums for individual health insurance for 1H 2022 amounted to S$155.9m. Overall, IPs and IP rider premiums accounted for 83.5% (S$130.2m) and the remaining 16.5% (S$25.7m) comprised other medical plans and riders.
About twenty thousand more Singaporeans and Permanent Residents were covered by IPs from the same time a year ago. In total, 2.87 million lives - approximately 70 per cent of Singapore residents - are protected by IPs, which provide coverage on top of MediShield Life.
Between January to June 2022, the life insurance industry paid out S$5.92bn to policyholders and beneficiaries. Of this amount, S$5,186m was for policies that matured.
The remaining S$740m was for death, total and permanent disablement and critical illness claims.
Khor Hock Seng added; "The volatile macroeconomic environment and sustained inflationary pressures will continue to impact life insurers in the near term."
"Life insurers will also have to cater to the rapidly evolving consumer product and purchase preferences as consumers increasingly expect insurers to offer more flexibility and personalisation for their products and services.
"Within the industry, life insurers will continue to focus on digitalisation with the aim of helping consumers better manage their healthcare needs and financial planning journey. To help Singaporeans better understand their insurance policies, life insurers have supported the establishment of a Singapore Financial Data Exchange (SGFinDex) which will soon include information on insurance policies."
"On the sustainability front, all member insurers have already adopted the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Guidelines on Environmental Risk Management and will continue to collaborate with MAS to work towards enhancing insurers' resilience to and management of environmental risk."
