Hong Kong's top 50 insurers experience 7.7% YoY premium contraction

Analysts said the market's complex financial environment and shrinking population curtailed industry growth.

- Olivia Tirona

The slimming appetite for linked products, decreased population size, and market uncertainty, have dragged the premiums of Hong Kong’s top 50 insurers by 7.7% year-on-year (YoY) in 2022, the Insurance Asia Rankings revealed.

In total, the top companies saw their premiums reach HK$511.7b, smaller than the HK$554.2b in 2021.

“In 2022, the linked products business decreased by over 50%, in terms of premiums industry-wide. This reflects this lower demand because the financial markets didn’t do well. And so people don’t want to buy insurance-linked products Assistant Professor Ben Charoenwong, from the Department of Finance at NUS Business, told Insurance Asia.

Complex financial environment

The drop in overall premiums is linked to complexities in financial markets. Both stocks and bonds faced significant losses simultaneously, leading potential policyholders to adopt a cautious stance.

“Of course, the funny thing for me — someone who studies the financial markets — is typically after you have a bad year, it tends to be better afterwards. And so you might want to start products when the price falls rather than avoid them,” Charoenwong said.