Increasing sales lift insurance premiums 14 percent in 2003

Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the owner of the nation's largest life insurer, and other insurers increased premiums by 14 percent last year, helped by sales of investment-linked policies.

Total premiums rose to NT$1.12 trillion (US$34 billion) from NT$985 billion a year earlier, the Department of Insurance said in a statement released in Taipei.

Investment-linked premiums jumped almost eleven-fold to NT$86.7 billion from NT$7.9 billion.

Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) and ING Life Insurance Co of America Taiwan Branch, took 68 percent of the total life insurance market last year.

The share of the top five life insurers dropped from 72 percent in 2002, the statement said. Nan Shan is a unit of the American International Group, Inc.

First-year premiums rose 22 percent to NT$344 billion and revenue from continued policies climbed 10 percent to NT$775 billion, the statement said.

There are 29 life insurers operating in the country, according to the Web site of the Life Insurance Association.