Aug 5, 2010
By Lorna Tan
BOOSTED by strong economic conditions, Singapore's life insurance industry registered a 34 per cent growth to $2.61 billion in new business premiums in the first half of this year.
In terms of weighted new business premiums, the sales growth is 28 per cent to $671 million. The weighted figures are adjusted to include 10 per cent of single premium sales and all of regular premium sales.
The Life Insurance Association (LIA) said on Thursday that sales were robust for all products.
Single premium sales soared to $2.09 billion, up 36 per cent from previously. The Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme accounted for 22 per cent or $464 million of these sales. Regular premium sales, which include traditional life products and investment linked insurance policies, rose 26 per cent to $518 million.
In tandem with the positive market sentiment, the share of investment-linked sales surged 30 per cent to $789 million from $462 million in the same period last year.
Said LIA president Tan Hak Leh: 'We expect to build on this momentum into the second half and close the year on a high note. Demand for insurance should remain very strong.'
However, he does not expect the next two quarters to experience the same level of growth in the first half. This is because the recovery had started from the middle of last year so the base would be bigger.
From The Strait Times published on Aug 5, 2010
