Six out of the top seven life insurers in Japan have reported a decline in insurance premium income for the second quarter (April-June) of the year, but this was offset by favourable exchange rates leading to increased investment income.
Premium hikes in April, along with other factors, are seen as the reason behind the reduction in premium income. Many insurers also stopped selling lump-sum whole-of-life insurance policies, due to the difficulty of generating yields from investments.
Nippon Life Insurance’s revenue dropped 1.4% to ¥1.34 trillion (US$12.2 billion).
Sumitomo Life Insurance began offering foreign currency-denominated policies in April, but was unable to prevent a decrease in revenue. Annualised premiums on new insurance policies decreased 11.2% to ¥23.8 billion, while premium and other income declined 20.3% to ¥629 billion.
Dai-ichi Life Holdings’ overall profit grew by 84.3% to ¥144 billion yen, surpassing its larger rival Nippon Life Insurance for the first time since April-June 2015.
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance’s revenue decreased by 7.8% to ¥716 billion yen, but core profit rose 19.4% to ¥103 billion. T&D Holdings saw its revenue decrease by 9.8% to ¥341 billion, accompanied by a profit plunge of 25.8%, down to ¥32.4 billion. Meanwhile, Asahi Mutual Life Insurance reported that revenue dropped 1.7% to ¥93.5 billion, but its core profit leapt 180% to ¥5.5 billion.
Among the top seven, Sony Life Insurance was the only firm whose premium revenue remained stable at ¥241 billion.
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