ENG-2018 — Page 106

4

Financial and Monetary Affairs

During the past five years, the Hong Kong insurance industry grew 12.2 per cent on average annually. In 2018, gross premiums amounted to $531.7 billion*, a 8.7 per cent increase over 2017. The total revenue premiums of in-force long-term business rose 8.5 per cent to $478.2 billion*. Individual life insurance remained the leading business, accounting for $431.3 billion*, or 90.2 per cent* of total revenue premiums, with 13.4 million* corresponding policies.

General insurance business rose to $53.6 billion* from $48.3 billion in 2017, representing a 11 per cent increase in gross premiums. The growth was driven mainly by an increase in gross premiums of accident and health business (comprising medical business), general liability business (comprising employees' compensation business) and property damage business. The overall underwriting performance of general insurance business turned from a loss of $0.8 billion* to a profit of $0.6 billion*.

Statistics on Insurance Business

2016

2017

2018

Number of authorised insurers

160

159

161

Of which:

Incorporated in Hong Kong Incorporated in the Mainland

87

88

89

73

71

72

or overseas

Premium income ($ billion)

451.7

489.2

531.7*

Total gross premiums

Of which:

Long-term in-force business

406.2^

440.9A

478.2*#

(Office/Revenue premiums)

General insurance

45.5

48.3

53.6*

(Gross premiums)

^ Office premiums

# Revenue premiums

* Provisional statistics

At the end of 2018, there were 104,201 individual insurance intermediaries, comprising 9,560 Chief Executives or Technical Representatives (TRs) of 788 broker firms, 25,310 Responsible Officers or TRs of 2,422 agency firms, and 69,285 individual agents and their 46 TRs.

Recent Developments

To achieve full cost recovery in the long run, the IA started collecting a levy of 0.04 per cent on insurance premiums from policyholders through insurance companies from 1 January 2018.. The levy rate will increase gradually until it reaches the target level of 0.1 per cent in 2021-22. Each policy is subject to a levy cap.

68