APRA releases improved quarterly general insurance statistics - March 2013

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has today released the March 2013 edition of the Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics, which has been enhanced following APRA’s consultation on proposed changes to general insurance statistical publications.

As a result of this consultation, the quarterly publication now contains an additional 25 general insurance statistics, including statistics based on the recently revised capital reporting framework and statistics at the class of business level, such as a split of ‘net incurred claims’, ‘number of risks’ and components of ‘total underwriting expenses’. The underwriting expense ratio and net underwriting combined ratio at a class of business level have also been included in the quarterly publication.

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

The publication shows that total net earned premium was $29.2 billion for the year to 31 March 2013, including $7.5 billion in the March quarter, an increase of $1.9 billion over the previous year. Total net incurred claims were $18.6 billion for the year to 31 March 2013, including $5.3 billion in the March quarter, a decrease of .2 billion over the previous year. Total investment income was $5.2 billion for the year to 31 March 2013, an increase of .3 billion over the previous year.

Net profit after tax was $5.3 billion in the year to 31 March 2013, including $913 million in the March quarter. The return on net assets was 17.5 per cent for the year, an increase from the previous year’s return of 12.3 per cent.

APRA will include an additional 16 new statistics on state-level premiums and claims expense in the quarterly publication in November 2013, for the September 2013 reference period. Over the next year, APRA will also release an improved General Insurance Institution-Level Statistics publication.

APRA has announced it will make a decision next quarter on the confidentiality of additional general insurance data that is proposed to be included in the General Insurance Institution-Level Statistics publication.

Refer to the March 2013 Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statisticspublication.