The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released the quarterly life insurance statistics for the three months ended December 31, 2021 (Q4).
The data features aggregate summaries of the life insurance industry's financial performance and position investments, claims, solvency, capital adequacy and management capital, and details on the performance of individual product groups.
In Q4 , the life insurance industry's net policy revenue totalled $3.7 billion, down 4.5% from $3.8 billion in the three months to September 30, 2021 (Q3). By contrast, the industry's investment revenue during Q4 totalled $0.8 billion, up 13.3% from $0.7 billion in Q3. Both quarters' total revenue hit around $4.8 billion, with Q4 seeing a 1.0% decrease from Q3.
For full-year 2021 (FY21), the life insurance industry reported $19.5 billion total revenue, a dramatic increase of 46.4% from the previous year's (FY20) $13.3 billion. The industry's total assets also rose by 1.3% from $130.2 billion in FY20 to $132.0 billion in FY21.
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According to APRA, the latest quarterly and full-year 2021 results reflect the improvement in the life insurance industry's overall performance, with the $1.2 billion net profit after tax for FY21 being a significant improvement from the previous year, mainly due to improved market performance and, to a lesser extent, growth in premium revenue.
Collectively, risk products returned an improved result for FY21, recording a profit of $752.9 million, thanks to individual disability income insurance that recorded a profit of $546.4 million, a $1.3 billion increase from the previous year. By contrast, individual lump sum returned a profit of $375.3 million, lower than the previous period.
Meanwhile, group lump sum and group disability income insurance reported improved results during FY21 compared to FY20. However, both products continued to return losses of $165.2 million and $3.6 million, respectively.
