APRA releases new statistics on life insurance

14.13

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has today released a new publication, Life Insurance Supplementary Statistical Tables, for the 12 months to December 2013.

The new annual publication contains aggregate statistics on sources of profit, assets backing policy liabilities and policy liabilities.

The publication was proposed in a consultation in February 2013 on planned changes to APRA’s life insurance statistical publications. The results of the consultation were released on 21 May 2013. The statistics in the new publication have been transferred from the discontinued Half Yearly Life Insurance Bulletin.

This enhancement to APRA’s life insurance statistics will provide users with access to additional life insurance statistics on a more timely basis, and is intended to assist research, public discussion and decision-making on the life insurance industry.

The publication shows that operating profit after tax for the year 2013 was $2.7 billion, with $1.5 billion attributable to superannuation business and the remaining amount in ordinary business. Net assets backing policy liabilities were $236.0 billion with cash and investment assets accounting for $205.9 billion. Net policy liabilities were $226.0 billion, with $210.4 billion in superannuation business and $15.6 billion in ordinary business.

Refer to the December 2013 Life Insurance Supplementary Statistical Tablesand Life Insurance Institution-level Statisticspublications, which contain information on financial performance, financial position and capital adequacy for individual life insurance companies.