《TAIPEI TIMES》 Insurers’ FYPs continued to drop in January, but pace of decline slowing

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

Life insurers’ first-year premiums （FYPs） continued to fall in January, but the pace of decline slowed from previous months, helped by sales of investment-linked products, the Life Insurance Association said in a report on Feb. 19.

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FYPs fell 14 percent year-on-year to NT$78.19 billion （US$2.76 billion）, following an annual decrease of 28.76 percent last year, the report said.

The market share of investment-linked policies climbed to 43.5 percent, from 17.5 percent a year earlier, with FYPs advancing 113.6 percent to NT$34.04 billion, the report said, adding that the increase reflected rallying stock markets, which boosted investors’ interest in such products.

Traditional life insurance policies continued to dominate the market, but their market share fell from 82.5 percent a year earlier to 56.5 percent, with FYPs plunging 41.2 percent to NT$44.15 billion, the report said.

The association attributed the decline to insurers cutting declared interest rates and halting sales of unprofitable disability insurance products.

Traditional life insurance policies comprise of regular life insurance, accident insurance, health insurance and annuity insurance products.

In January, sales of regular life insurance products halved from a year earlier to NT$33.64 billion, but health insurance policies grew 5.5 percent to NT$3.98 billion, as consumers paid more attention to their health insurance coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.

Sales of accident insurance policies rose 2.5 percent in January and annuity insurance sales rose 34.3 percent, the report said.

The association said bancassurance continued to be the biggest sales channel for insurance products, generating NT$43.3 billion in FYPs and accounting for 55.37 percent of all FYPs in January, up from 51.61 percent for the whole of last year.

Salespeople were the second biggest channel, generating 36.22 percent of all FYPs, followed by insurance agents and brokers, with a combined market share of 8.41 percent, the report said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES