APRA releases improved quarterly general insurance statistics - December 2011

12.04

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today released the December 2011 edition of the Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics publication, which has been enhanced following APRA’s consultation on changes to its general insurance statistical publications.

As a result of this consultation, the quarterly publication now includes additional statistics such as operating income and expenses, solvency, and more class of business statistics. These additional statistics are being made available three months earlier than when previously published in the Half Yearly General Insurance Bulletin, which has ceased.

The additional statistics are contained exclusively in a new database version of the quarterly publication, which is available in addition to the PDF and Excel versions. This new database version will help users more easily analyse the statistics and can be easily imported into various tools to allow users to conduct more in-depth analysis.

These improvements to the quarterly publication provide users with access to general insurance statistics on a more frequent and timely basis, and are intended to assist in research, public discussion and in decision-making on the general insurance industry.

The publication shows that in the December 2011 quarter, net earned premium for the industry was $7.1 billion, up from $6.7 billion in the previous quarter. For the year ended December 2011, net earned premium was $26.6 billion.

Net incurred claims for the industry in the quarter were $5.0 billion, down from $5.2 billion in the previous quarter. For the year ended December 2011, net incurred claims were $19.9 billion.

Net profit after tax for the industry in the December 2011 quarter was .6 billion, down from .8 billion in the previous quarter. For the year ended December 2011, net profit after tax was $3.0 billion, which represented a return on net assets of 10.0 per cent.

APRA’s consultation on proposed changes to its general insurance statistical publications closed on 19 January 2012. Copies of the discussion paper, submissions made in response to this paper and APRA’s response to these submissions are available on APRA’s website.

Refer to the December 2011 Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics publication.