|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
Singapore Insurance Report Q4 2008
Business Monitor International, Dec 2008, Pages: 93
BMI's Singapore Insurance Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Singapore's insurance industry.
This report is being written at a time that the Global Financial Crisis – which arose as a result of the evaporation of inter-bank liquidity - appeared to be moving towards a resolution: the governments of the UK, the USA and most of the larger countries in the euro area have all announced plans to make funds available – in one form or another – to their respective commercial banking sectors. As yet, it is too early to identify the impact of the crisis on particular emerging markets. However, in the regular section which discusses the changes which we are making to the report, we include a lengthy essay which attempts to identify the key issues. In essence, in the emerging markets (and, indeed, the developed countries) of the Asia-Pacific, commercial banks and insurers appear to be well placed to deal with the crisis. The same is, broadly, true of commercial banks and insurers in the various countries of the Middle East and North Africa. In Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia appear better placed than Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. South Africa’s situation appears to have much in common with that of Brazil: by contrast, Nigeria faces some of the same challenges as those that confront Venezuela. The positions of most countries in Central and Eastern Europe, however, are alarming. It has not been practicable for us to collate the latest figures for assets and premium income this quarter. The global financial situation has been changing so rapidly that most numbers would have become out of date. Nevertheless, we expect that, in coming months, it will become obvious that credit growth is slowing dramatically in most of the countries whose commercial banking sectors are profiled in BMI’s reports. We will amend the figures - and indeed our forecasts – accordingly.
Nevertheless we believe that the figures which we had compiled last quarter provide insights as to how the various insurance sectors will fare in the current, extremely uncertain, environment. We have therefore left them, and the comments on the Key Issues essentially unchanged.
The Global Financial Crisis is likely to affect the various segments of the global insurance industry in different ways. In many countries – especially in Europe – the coming recession points to softness in the non-life segment. In many cases, the numbers of policies may fall: there should be downwards pressure on premiums. By contrast, the main problem for the life segment – in almost all countries – is the extreme volatility of financial markets. Over the longer-term, though, the fortunes of life insurance will recover - thanks to the secular growth of organised savings in most countries. China, where the larger insurance companies continue to achieve double digit growth in premium income, is a good example of this. Some particular niches should also do well in the current environment, such as legal liability insurance.
In the Asia Pacific, we profile 23 companies. These are AEGON, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Cardif, Fortis, Generali, Groupama, HDI-Gerling, HSBC Insurance, ING Group, Liberty Mutual, Manulife, MetLife, Prudential Financial, Prudential plc, QBE, RSA, Sun Life Financial, The Hartford, Principal Financial Group and Zurich Financial Services. We also look at various local firms that are active in the region: some of these companies rank, in terms of the premiums that they write, among the largest in the world. For almost all the countries whose reports we are updating, we are also able to include actual data for calendar 2007: this was not the case for our Q208 reports.
In 2007, total premiums in Taiwan rose by 18% to TWD1,987,680mn. Non-life premiums rose by 5% to TWD283,995mn, while Life premiums rose by 21% to TWD1,703,685mn. Between now and the end of the forecast period, we expect that annual Non-life premiums will grow by TWD259,208mn, while annual Life premiums should increase by TWD397,531mn. Growth in Non-life premiums should be driven by the general growth in nominal GDP plus a rise in Non-life penetration from the current level of 2.29% to 3.20%. Growth in Life premiums should be driven by the change in the overall population and a rise in life density from US$2,265.93 to US$3,000.00 per capita. BMI’s Insurance Business Environment Rating is 69.9.
Also available
Singapore Insurance Report Q1 2008
Singapore Insurance Report Q2 2008
Singapore Insurance Report Q3 2008
Singapore Insurance Report Q1 2009
Singapore Insurance Report Q3 2009
Customers who bought this item also bought
Singapore Insurance Report Q3 2008
Taiwan Insurance Report Q4 2008
Bulgaria Insurance Report Q4 2008
Hungary Insurance Report Q4 2008
Greece Insurance Report Q4 2008
Brazil Insurance Report Q4 2008
Philippines Insurance Report Q4 2008
Mexico Insurance Report Q4 2008
Croatia Insurance Report Q4 2008
South Korea Insurance Report Q3 2008
Indonesia Insurance Report Q3 2008
Czech Republic Insurance Report Q4 2008
|
|
|
|
