Singapore life insurers have brought in SG$4.11 billion in weighted new business premiums in the first nine months of 2021, up 38% from the same period last year, according to the Life Insurance Association (LIA) Singapore.
According to the industry association, single-premium products recorded a year-over-year increase of 28% in weighted premiums for the third quarter. For the first nine months of the year, this amounted to SG$2.03 billion, 68% higher than the same period last year.
This was slightly offset by the 8% decrease in sales of annual premium products in the third quarter. However, for the first nine months, it saw an increase of 17%, totalling SG$2.07 billion in weighted annual premiums.
The LIA noted that the number of policies purchased online more than tripled, from 120,396 in January to September 2020, to 370,528 in the same period this year. While policies bought online accounted for 28.2% of policies sold, these were only responsible for 3.5% of weighted premiums. The tied representative channel was responsible for the largest number of policies sold at 37.3%, while bank representatives brought in the most premiums at 33.2%.
Retirement policies saw a 12% year-on-year increase, with a total of 32,297 retirement policies purchased as of Sept. 30.
“Sustainability in insurance is rapidly evolving on many fronts and insurers will need to keep pace by acquiring the necessary expertise and resources,” said Khor Hock Seng, president of LIA Singapore. “Multiple efforts at the insurance industry level are in progress to curate and provide training courses for our workforce on the different aspects of sustainability and for different levels of employees. COVID-19 has served to greatly accelerate insurers’ digitalisation journey. Again, insurers will continue to focus on equipping our workforce to embrace digitalised processes and new ways of working.”
