The life insurance sector of Singapore posted a 19% growth in weighted new business premiums for the first three months of 2017, reaching SGD811 million.
This was revealed by the Life Insurance Association (LIA) of Singapore on Monday.
According to LIA president Patrick Teow, the growth was partly due to the industry’s agility and ability to respond to the fast-changing needs of customers by introducing new products that are available through multiple channels.
Banks continued to be the top distribution channel for life insurance in the ASEAN country, responsible for 46% of total weighted new business premiums. This was followed by tied agents with 33%, and financial adviser representatives at 17%.
The strong results were hailed by Teow as fruit of the industry’s focus on bridging Singapore’s protection gap. The LIA is working on a study tackling the protection gap this year, he said.
“Ensuring adequate protection is especially critical at a time of economic uncertainty and rapid demographic shifts in Singapore,” Teow told the
Straits Times. “Life insurers are increasingly leveraging digitalisation to innovate and respond to these fundamental changes.”
As of end-March, 2.91 million residents of Singapore were insured, or roughly one in every two people.
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