Life insurance companies’ combined first-year premiums (FYP) fell for the ninth consecutive month last month due to a low interest rate environment and tougher regulations, a report released on Monday by the Life Insurance Association showed.
Total FYP plunged 10 percent year-on-year to NT$54.42 billion (US$1.88 billion), including NT$32.1 billion in FYP generated by traditional life insurance products and NT$22.2 billion derived from investment-linked policies, the report showed.
Last month’s fall was milder than the declines of 30 to 40 percent reported earlier this year, indicating stabilizing sales, the report said.
Investment-linked policies’ FYP rose 33 percent annually last month, as insurers launched new products to meet consumer demand for products that offer better returns than bank deposits, it said.
For the first nine months, cumulative FYP generated by investment-type policies totaled NT$137 billion, down 28 percent year-on-year, while traditional policies fell 30 percent to NT$467 billion.
Consumers were less interested in traditional life insurance policies after insurers stopped offering products with much higher returns to comply with a new regulation that took effect in July.
However, health insurance policies bucked the trend with a 12 percent rise in cumulative FYP to NT$32 billion during the January-to-September period, as people became more concerned about their health insurance coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
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