Singapore life insurance industry maintained growth trajectory with a slight increase in new premiums in 2019 in the midst of the city-state’s slowest annual economic expansion in a decade.
The industry recorded S$4.3 billion ($3.1 billion) of new business premiums in 2019, a 0.4 percent year-on-year increase, while the country posted decade-low growth of 0.7 percent, according to a report recently released by Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore). Total sum assured for new business climbed 7 percent in the year to reach $107.9 billion.
A noteworthy contributor to growth is the increased uptake of retirement solutions which saw a 34 percent increase in policy count to 51,040. The weighted premium of retirement policies totaled $338.5 million or about 11 percent of all weighted premiums.
Digital Talent
In line with overall growth, Singapore’s life insurance industry continues to expand its workforce. The sector housed 8,448 employees as of 2019-end which included 441 new hires in the year. Expertise in digitalization was underlined as a highly sought after role and LIA Singapore noted that it was «exploring ways to support the industry’s workforce transformation» though it did not specify how.
«The life insurance industry will continue to take a long-term view to progress Singapore as a thriving insurance hub in the region,» said Khor Hock Seng, LIA Singapore’s president. «We will focus efforts on enhancing the professionalism, culture and conduct in the way we do business, as well as drive more innovations as we invest in grooming the workforce for the future.»
