《TAIPEI TIMES》 Compensation for COVID-19 insurance tops NT$20bn

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

As of Monday, total compensation by non-life insurance companies to policyholders of COVID-19 insurance surpassed NT$20 billion （US$669.9 million）, suggesting a loss ratio of nearly 500 percent, data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.

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A loss ratio — the ratio of losses to premiums paid — of more than 100 percent means an insurance product is not making money.

As of Monday, COVID-19 insurance policy compensation claims had reached NT$20.5 billion, an increase of NT$5.62 billion, or 37 percent, from the previous week.

The money was paid out to 571,000 policyholders, up 35 percent from a week earlier, data from the commission showed.

COVID-19 insurance premiums increased 1.7 percent from NT$4.06 billion a week earlier to NT$4.13 billion, as 4.45 million COVID-19 insurance policies had been sold to consumers, the data showed.

The loss ratio of COVID-19 insurance products stood at 498 percent, meaning that compensation was 4.98 times the premiums from sales of such policies.

As of Monday, 12.8 percent of all COVID-19 insurance policyholders had received compensation, the commission said.

The commission has approved eight insurers’ applications to use NT$9.94 billion in special reserves to write off their losses.

They are Fubon Insurance Co （富邦產險）, Cathay Century Insurance Co （國泰世紀產險）, Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Corp （新安東京海上產險）, CTBC Insurance Co （中國信託產險）, Chung Kuo Insurance Co （兆豐產險）, Hotai Insurance Co （和泰產險）, MSIG Mingtai Insurance Co （明台產險） and Nan Shan General Insurance Co （南山產險）.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES